Alain de Botton

Not to be confused with political theorist Alain de Benoist.

Alain de Botton

FRSL
De Botton in 2011
De Botton in 2011
Born (1969-12-20) 20 December 1969 (age 54)
Zürich, Switzerland
OccupationWriter, speaker
Nationality
  • Swiss
  • British
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA)
King's College London (MPhil)
Harvard University
Period1993–present
De Botton's voice
De Botton speaking at Cannes Lions 2012 on the fear of failure
Website
alaindebotton.com

Alain de Botton FRSL (/dəˈbɒtən/; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published Essays in Love (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004), and The Architecture of Happiness (2006).

He co-founded The School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009.[1][2] In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from the Melbourne Writers Festival, for that work.

  1. ^ Hird, Alison (17 June 2014). "Parisians learn at the School of Life". RFI. Retrieved 16 August 2022. Founded in London in 2008 by Swiss-born philosopher Alain de Botton
  2. ^ Louie, Elaine (17 November 2010). "Alain de Botton's First Effort to Bring Modern Architecture to the British". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 August 2022. Alain de Botton, the Swiss-born essayist who lives in London, founded a nonprofit group called Living Architecture in 2009