Heinemann £18.99 pp224

Through his books, broadcasts and lectures, Charles Handy has become our most widely read and appreciated social philosopher, to use his preferred self-designation. Here the former Shell executive, professor at London Business School, author of The Empty Raincoat and contributor to Thought for the Day weaves together his own life story with wider reflections about the areas in life with which he has been most concerned professionally. As we have come to expect of his writing, it is highly readable, with short sentences, vivid and homely analogies and telling statistics.

What is different about Handy’s life from the way most of us live ours is that he is seriously reflective about what he does and why he does it and then draws the appropriate practical conclusions. He discriminates, and what he does he tries to do in some depth. For example, whereas many of us flit into conferences, deliver our lecture and rush out again, Handy will not only stay the whole time but go for a couple of days before in order to meet people and learn.

The biggest background influence in his life has been his father, a Church of Ireland parson. The Church of Ireland has had an extraordinary genius for a generous and genial approach to life, with a serious but relaxed practice of religion. Handy felt disappointed that his father did not make more of his life, for he stayed for 40 years in the one parish: yet when he died hundreds of people came to his funeral and witnessed to the influence he had been on their personal lives. His death made Handy rethink his own life. In particular it made him focus on eudaimonia, or flourishing, “doing your best with what you are best at”. It led him out of Shell, where he worked in southeast Asia, via St George’s House, Windsor, and into a life of freelance lecturing and writing.

He warns would-be followers that it is very difficult to make a living and that there were seven very lean years. But Handy did indeed live out what he sees as the purpose of all education, which should be “aimed at giving someone the self-belief that enables them to take charge of their own life”.

Whether it is in business, charity work or personal life, Handy urges us always to keep in view the overall purpose and never allow means to that purpose to become an end in themselves. This message, as applied to himself, has led to his famous portfolio existence. He and his wife decided to allocate 150 days to their purely creative work, writing and photography, along with the reading and research that goes into both; 100 days to administration and business, mostly foreign lecture tours, with 30 days for voluntary work of one sort or another. On the international lecture circuit they would do a maximum of 10 speaking engagements a year, as long as they were with groups or in countries where he would meet new challenges: five done for fees, and five for expenses only for deserving courses or projects, “hoping that this would be enough to keep us solvent”.

“Enough” is a key word in Handy’s personal philosophy, though he knows it raises important questions, not least in old age, with the prospect, say, of having to pay hundreds of pounds a week for family members in residential care homes.

The Handys have applied this personal philosophy of relating means to ends in the design of their flat. They have even had their kitchen in seven different places, corresponding to the different phases of their lives. More important, they have exercised this creativity in relation to their own marriage. “These days I sometimes quip that I am now on my second marriage — but to the same woman.”

Handy has a simple but effective definition of leadership: “To combine the aspirations and needs of the individuals with the purposes of the larger community to which they all belong.” While he has always written well about those larger communities, his particular concern is with the aspirations of individuals, his model being the theatre programme in which everyone is listed, however small their contribution.

Now, nearing his 74th birthday, Handy approaches the last phase with characteristic discrimination and practical consistency. He wants all his books and honorary degrees burnt in a great funeral pyre and he hopes that, like his father, he will remain in the hearts of those he has influenced, especially those closest to him. As for the rich, he reminds them they won’t be remembered for any of their achievements, only for what they gave away.

This is a wise work from which we will all learn. The question, of course, is whether we will have the guts, as Handy has, actually to try to live according to its wisdom.

Richard Harries is the Bishop of Oxford. Myself and Other More Important Matters is available at the Books First price of £17.09 (inc p&p) on 0870 165 8585

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy