Alain de Botton

His step-mother is an illustrious bridge player in the UK and is also a benefactor of the arts.

He lives in London with Charlotte, his wife and they have two boys; Samuel and Saul.

Alain de Botton was born to Jacqueline de Botton and Gilbert de Botton, in Zurich.

From a very young age, he was exposed to a variety of ethnicities as his father was brought up in Egypt and his mother was born in Switzerland. His name, Alain, is a typical Sephardic Jew name and he was introduced to both, French and German cultures.

His father, at the time, was the wealthy co-founder of the organization, ‘Global Asset Management’. He has a step-sister, Miel.

He studied at Dragon School and opted for English as his first language. He then enrolled to Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, where he studied MA in History from 1988 to 1991.

He obtained his MPhil in Philosophy from King’s College, University of London between the years 1991 and 1992. He decided to pursue PhD in French Philosophy at Harvard University, but gave it up as soon as he discovered his passion for writing.

He authored his first best-seller novel, ‘Essays in Love’ in 1993, which focused on the themes of love and complicated relationships.

In 1997, he penned ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life’, a work of literature, which centered on the works and life of Marcel Proust.

From 1998 to 2000, he contributed articles to a number of English papers including the popular, ‘The Independent on Sunday’.

In 2000, he authored, ‘The Consolations of Philosophy’, the title of which was inspired by ‘Consolation of Philosophy’, a philosophical work by Boethius. Through this book, he attempted to assay the teachings of the famous philosophers including Seneca, Socrates, Nietzsche and Epicurus.

He dabbled with a new style of expressive writing for ‘The Art of Travel’, published in 2002. The book offers a philosophical outlook at the omnipresent but uncharacteristic activity of wishful traveling, with extensive thoughts on airports, landscapes, photographs, exotic locations and hotels.

‘Essays in Love’, also titled as, ‘On Love’, authored in 1993, was his first novel and is considered his magnum opus and it went on to sell over two million copies around the US and UK. The novel was also adapted into film titled ‘My Last Five Girlfriends’, directed by Julian Kemp.

‘The Architecture of Happiness’, published in 2006, was widely appreciated by architects and architectural critics. The novel itself played a predominant role in the smash hit, ‘500 Days of Summer’ and is also the basis for the Channel 4 series, ‘The Perfect Home’.