Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton, FRSL is a Swissborn, Britishbased philosopher and award winning television presenter. His books and television programmes discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophys relevance to everyday life. At 23, he published Essays in Love , which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life , Status Anxiety and The Architecture of Happiness .

He was born in Zurich, the son of Jacqueline and Gilbert de Botton, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt and expelled under Nasser. Gilbert went to live and work in Switzerland, where he cofounded an investment firm, Global Asset Management his family was estimated to have been worth 234 million in 1999. De Bottons Swissborn mother was Ashkenazi, and his father was from a Sephardic Jewish family from the town of Boton in Castile and Len.

Source: Wikipedia