Atlantic Books acquires new work exploring a positive way to live with anxiety by award-winning broadcaster and practicing chartered psychologist Dr Sian Williams

Ed Faulkner, Group Non-Fiction Publisher of Atlantic Books, has acquired World all language rights in The Power of Anxiety: How to Ride the Worry Wave by award-winning broadcaster and practicing chartered psychologist Dr Sian Williams from Annabel Merullo at PFD. The Power of Anxiety will be published in trade paperback and ebook on their Allen & Unwin UK imprint in March 2026.

Anxiety rates are spiralling, affecting a third of a billion people globally. In the UK alone, more than eight million people, or one in 10, will experience anxiety serious enough to be classed as a disorder – it’s higher still in the US and across much of Western Europe, Canada and Australia, many live with anxiety symptoms that profoundly affect how they think, feel and behave. The causes might seem obvious: social media, the climate crisis and economic inequalities leading to alienation and despair. But while we wait for politicians and tech companies to do the right thing to alleviate anxiety’s societal causes, what can we do as individuals to live well, alongside it?

This is a book that looks at anxiety differently. Instead of allowing it to keep us stuck, it suggests we turn towards it, ceasing to see it as a problem to solve and instead as a truth to acknowledge, accept and work with. If we let anxiety have power over us, we are fixed and static, with no room for questioning, no opportunity for change and renewal. We need to start to see anxiety as our alert system, telling us that something isn’t right, rather than allowing it to destabilise us. To listen to what it is telling us, rather than quietening it. To celebrate the unique sensitivity that makes us feel so intensely. It’s letting intuition guide us, not fear. It’s seeing anxiety as a tool, not a trap.

Readers will discover how to live alongside their own anxiety well, with tips, tools, exercises, expert research and stories from those who’ve learnt how to ride the worry wave. A member of a multi-million album selling band describes dealing with the ‘gremlins’ that plagued his performance at the height of his fame. A top-selling author talks of managing the fear of failure that pushes her to perfectionism and high-performing anxiety. A national TV presenter explains how she manages her overwhelming social anxiety. There are those from Sian’s clinic too, who’ve lived with panic, self-criticism and doubt and who’ve all discovered how to live with anxiety in new ways.

If you have failed to free yourself from your anxiety, despite trying everything, if you are done with trying to get rid of it, then this is the book for you.

Dr Sian Williams, says,

‘As someone who works with, and lives with anxiety, I know it’s not something we can hide from, ignore, or avoid. It’s an essential part of who we are, it thrums within us. If we listen to its vibrations, feel them resonate in our body, hear what anxiety is saying to us, we can use it for good. Our sensitivity is a powerful, motivating force – we just need to learn how to harness it.’

Ed Faulkner, says,

‘For years we’ve got anxiety wrong. Trying to fix it or get rid of it, doesn’t work.  In this brilliant book Dr Sian Williams shows with warmth and empathy a new way to live with and thrive alongside our worries.  It is a book that will genuinely change people’s lives and we can’t wait to publish it next spring.’