[1] Before moving, he had perceived Scandinavians to be a "bearded, woolly jumper-wearing, recycling bunch of people", but afterwards was surprised by how different each of the Nordic countries seemed to be.

[1] Booth undertook four years of research while writing the book, including travelling to each of the countries and interviewing prominent political and cultural figures of each nationality.

[7][8] He criticises the Danish population's environmental footprint and notes that their taxation rate and levels of personal debt are among the highest in the world.

[10] He notes that despite having a "nature-loving" reputation, Norway has a large ecological footprint, and that the sale of fossil fuels accounts for much of the country's wealth.

[7] Sweden receives Booth's strongest criticism,[5][6] where consumerist influences are blamed for the apparent downfall of the Nordic model of social democracy and recurrent failures of the Swedish justice system.

The Finns were pretty cool; the Swedes, pedantic but resigned; the Danes did get a little fighty; the Icelanders were irritated not to have been given more attention; but the Norwegians, boy, they were not happy."