‘Dress rehearsal for catastrophe’: how Stoics are speaking to locked-down readers
Sales of works by ancient Roman Marcus Aurelius have seen a sharp uptick in recent months. Which makes calm sense
October 2016
Lost in showbiz
Alain de Botton and Katie Price’s meeting of minds – and sharp tongues
The great philosopher is interviewing the writer, business mogul and former model at his School for Life, and it promises to provoke more than intellectual interest
May 2016
Digested read
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton – digested read
John Crace boils down the relationship advice of an emotional colossus to a condescending 850 words
The Course of Love review – philosophy overload
Alain de Botton’s story of a marriage is illuminated but also obstructed by philosophical interjections
Critical eye
Book reviews roundup: A Very Expensive Poison; The Course of Love; The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History
What the critics thought of A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding, The Course of Love by Alain de Botton and The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History by Frank Dikötter
April 2016
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton review – affairs, childcare and Ikea glassware
Culture webchats
Alain de Botton – your questions answered, on art, God and ugliness
February 2016
What's the point of music? Ask Peter Gabriel
Whether releasing sadness or sending shivers down our spines, the songs in our ‘emotional toolbox’ can transform daily life … if we learn how to use them
July 2015
Books blog
Books that make great conversation starters – let's talk!
Sometimes you just have to talk about a book, even if you’ve never met the person holding it. We’ve been sharing stories of such encounters all week, but what are the books that introduced you to the friends you hadn’t yet met?
June 2015
Extraordinary tale of Alain de Botton’s ‘heroine’ grandmother
Yolande Gabai de Botton’s adventures in a spy-filled Middle East are told in a new film
November 2014
Top 10s
The top 10 books about reading
Top 10: Books about books, where literature is integral to life, are a genre in themselves, as terrific titles by authors from Nicholson Baker to Geoff Dyer very readably show
August 2014
Top 10s
The top 10 fictitious biographies
From Nabokov to Woolf to Coetzee, novelist Jonathan Gibbs selects the best imaginary lives presented as the real thing
Chinese empresses, Gruffalos and Alain de Botton: Day two at the Edinburgh international book festival
From the Jesus and Mary Chain to the literary sensation of the moment, Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgaard, we bring you the highlights of the second day of the festival
Books blog
Alain de Botton in quotes: "The news promotes a toxic society of envy"
Why celebrity role models are OK, smartphones are not, and we should all be more biased than the BBC. An hour of philosophical crowd-pleasing distilled into key quotes
June 2014
Peter Duggan's artoons
Peter Duggan's artoon: Alain gets to De Botton of Roy Lichtenstein
Sky News chief hits out at Alain de Botton’s criticism of news media
May 2014
Peter Duggan's artoons
Peter Duggan's Artoon: Alain de Botton's art therapy comes unstuck
Peter Duggan
Books blog
10 authors who are brilliant at Twitter
Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George HW Bush review – Geoff Dyer's engaging warship adventures
A hollow European culture is writ large in Amsterdam
