Gilbert was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but after being expelled under Nasser, he went to live and work in Switzerland, where he co-founded an investment firm, Global Asset Management; his family was estimated to have been worth £234 million in 1999.

[3] Alain de Botton's Swiss-born mother was Ashkenazi, and his father was from a Sephardic Jewish family from the town of Boton[4] in Castile and León.

[5] De Botton's paternal grandmother was Yolande Harmer, a Jewish-Egyptian journalist who spied for Israel and died in Jerusalem.

De Botton read history at University of Cambridge, where he was a member of Gonville and Caius College, graduating with a double starred first.

In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes.

[citation needed] In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009),[15] de Botton produced a survey of ten different jobs, including accountancy, rocket science and biscuit manufacture.

The book, a piece of narrative non-fiction, includes two hundred original images and aims to unlock the beauty, interest and occasional horror of the modern world of work.

De Botton put it: "It's clear to me that religions are in the end too complex, interesting and on occasion wise to be abandoned simply to those who believe in them".

[27][28][29][30][31] Negative reviews allege that de Botton tends to state the obvious[32][33] and have characterized some of his books as pompous and lacking focus.

In response to a question about whether he felt "pulled" to be a writer, de Botton responded:So I think where people tend to end up results from a combination of encouragement, accident, and lucky break, etc.

Based in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Seoul, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, São Paulo, Berlin and Melbourne, The School of Life offers an emotional education focusing in particular on the issues of Work and Relationships.

[39]In May 2009, de Botton launched a project called "Living Architecture,"[40] which builds holiday rental houses in the UK using leading contemporary architects.

The most recent house to be announced is a collaboration between the Turner-prize winning artist Grayson Perry, and the architecture firm FAT.

De Botton and his colleague John Armstrong inserted captions, arranged on large Post-it-style labels designed by the Dutch graphic artist, Irma Boom, bearing slogans and commentary on exhibits throughout the Rijksmuseum.

"[43] When his father died, his family was left a large trust fund,[44] although de Botton says his income is derived solely from his own activities (book sales, speaking engagements, business consulting, The School of Life).

[45][46][47] Alain's stepmother, Janet Wolfson de Botton, is a prominent patron of the arts and competition bridge player.

In August 2014, de Botton was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.