The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu to co-write book

Work on "The Book of Joy: Finding Enduring Happiness in an Uncertain World" is set to start this weekend when the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates meet to celebrate the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday.

The book, the rights to which launched a 12-way bidding war among the world's leading publishers, according to The Bookseller, will be co-written by Douglas Abrams, who already has a working relationship with Archbishop Tutu, having written a children's book together.

"The Book of Joy" will consist of answers to questions about life submitted to the Nobel Prize winners via their Facebook pages and when completed will be published by Hutchinson in the UK and Commonwealth and by Avery Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House in North America.