Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, FRSL (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British philosopher and author. 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).
A Journey
Within hours of its launch "A Journey" became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time at bookseller Waterstones, where it sold more copies in one day than Peter Mandelson's "" had done in its first three weeks earlier that year. It debuted at the top of Amazon.co.uk's British best-seller list. Within a week, Nielsen BookScan said that 92,000 copies of "A Journey" had been sold in the United Kingdom, the best opening week for an autobiography since the company began keeping figures in 1998. "The New York Times" reported that in the United States, an initial print run of 50,000 copies had been extended by another 25,000, with the book set to debut at Number 3 on "The New York Times" hardcover best-seller list. Andrew Lake, Waterstones' political buyer, said, "Nothing can compare to the level of interest shown in this book. You have to look at hugely successful fiction authors such as Dan Brown or JK Rowling to find books that have sold more quickly on their first day. Mandelson may remain the prince but Blair has reclaimed his title as king, certainly in terms of book sales.
Blair recorded a series of promotional interviews for radio and television for, among others, the Arabic television network Al Jazeera, the ITV1 daytime magazine programme "This Morning", and BBC Two, which aired an hour-long interview with the journalist and political commentator Andrew Marr. He was in Washington, D.C. on the day of the UK launch to participate in peace talks with Middle East leaders and attend a White House dinner with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The British newspaper "The Independent" reported that Blair's visit to the United States was a coincidence, and not an attempt to be out of the United Kingdom when the book was published. When Blair arrived for his first book signing at a leading bookshop on O'Connell Street, Dublin on 4 September, demonstrators heckled, jeered and threw eggs and shoes at him. One activist posed as a purchaser to attempt a citizen's arrest of Blair for war crimes. Protestors clashed with Irish police and tried to push over a security barrier outside the shop. The demonstrators—anti-war protestors and Irish republicans opposed to the peace process—called queuing customers "traitors" and "West Brits". Four people were arrested during the incident.