From stand-up comedy to naked modelling - meet the woman who followed the advice of a different self help book every month for a year

Marianne Power followed the advice of a different self-help book - to the letter - every month for a year. There were highs, lows and plenty of new experiences. But did she end up any happier? Katie Byrne finds out.

Power reader: Author and journalist Marianne Power ploughed through all the best-known self-help books and put their advice to the test in her own life. Photograph: ©Fran Veale

Have you ever thought about the books that we buy purely as pick-me-ups? The diet books bought during a burst of motivation that dissipates as quickly as it came on; the stylish cookbooks that are more aspirational than inspirational.

Marianne Power's pick-me-up was self-help. At 36, her bookshelves were groaning with titles that she had acquired during a decade-long devotion to the genre. The trouble was that she never got around to taking the advice on the pages. She didn't do the 'journalling'. She didn't say the affirmations. In truth, the only real action she took was going to the bookshop to hunt for another title.