Londoner's Diary: Alain de Botton wants the kids to get their thinking caps on

In Today's Diary: Alain de Botton is down with the kids | Princess Eugenie's boyfriend plans pub empire | Mark Gatiss assembles a new league of gentlemen | Dolly Alderton is looking for Trouble 
(Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images
Corbis via Getty Images
4 August 2017

It's hard being a kid but Alain de Botton thinks he has the answer: he’s introducing philosophy to the youth of today. The author of How Proust Can Change Your Life and the best-selling Consolations of Philosophy is thinking small for his next book: he’s creating a guide for children that seeks to tackle the problems of being young.

Last week de Botton tweeted a teaser to his current project, a “philosophy book for kids”. So far, it seems to be a manual for young people about how to handle tricky situations.

“A car journey is very long,” one scenario reads, before two options are offered: “Keep on asking when you’ll get there; tell everyone that you are very, very bored; complain that the journey is too long every couple of minutes” or “Admit to yourself it’s going to take ages; look at things out of the window; design the perfect house or submarine in your head”. Other hypotheticals include getting sent to bed early, or losing a game of cards.

The project is, perhaps, informed by the sage’s busy home life with two young boys: de Botton has two sons, Samuel and Saul, with his wife Charlotte.

The Londoner contacted the philosopher’s School of Life in King’s Cross to see if de Botton would be introducing children to the works of Plato, Kant or Aristotle, but they didn’t want to spill the secrets. They did, however, tell us that the tome is set for a February 2018 release, is targeted at those seven and older and will encompass the school’s “coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring and sane”. Hopefully it should give them a Thoreau understanding.

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For politicians, an eye-catching slogan is vital. But Cat Smith, the Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, may wish to rethink her latest. Smith is campaigning to lower the voting age from 18 to 16, and has written a piece for the Huffington Post explaining why. The stand-out quote? “At 16 you can have sex with your MP — but you can’t vote for them!”

Smith is, we’re sure, speaking purely hypothetically.

Wanted: a new nightclub for the royals

Club couple: Jack Brooksbank and Princess Eugenie (Image: Mark Robert Milan/GC Images)
GC Images

Ever since the closure of raucous nightclub Boujis — a former favourite of Prince Harry — those seeking a glimpse of the monarchy’s heirs and spares have lacked an ideal destination. Could Jack Brooksbank, one-time Mahiki manager and the long-term partner of Princess Eugenie, fix all that with the help of his former boss Michael Evans?

“There’s a chance we might set up a bar together,” Evans told us. “I’ve always wanted to own my own place,” Brooksbank added. “I want to create a chain of pubs: it’s been my dream since I was 18.” Surely Eugenie will give the endeavour the royal seal of approval?

Quote of the Day

Christine Hamilton (Image:Harold Cunningham/FilmMagic)
FilmMagic

“I’ve had longer hangovers than Scaramucci’s been in office”

Christine Hamilton puts former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci’s brief tenure into perspective

The Gatiss gang gathers at The Old Vic

Queer as Folk: Russell Tovey, Sara Crowe, Fionn Whitehead, Kadiff Kirwan and Mark Gatiss (Image: David M. BenettGetty Images)

Mark Gatiss, the actor and writer who co-created the darkly comic series The League of Gentlemen, brought a new crew together last night for an evening at The Old Vic. Gatiss curated Queers, a series of monologues about the experiences of gay men over the past few decades, performed onstage before being broadcast on BBC4 this week. The project marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, with contributors including Russell Tovey, taking time off from starring in the National Theatre’s hit revival of Angels in America, and Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead. A whole new league of gentlemen.

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Wigs off to Lord Neuberger, the Supreme Court president, who steps down this month. Will he finally relax? Last week his successor, Lady Hale, sent him off with a valedictory speech at the Supreme Court, telling well-wishers that the portrait painter responsible for immortalising Neuberger on the walls of Lincoln’s Inn is taking a while: he is, she said, on his 17th sitting. Why? “David doesn’t like sitting still,” law website Legal Cheek observes. Send him on a fishing trip.

Tweet of the Day

“It’s Yorkshire Day! Celebrate by determinedly betraying no emotions about it whatsoever.”

Guardian columnist and author Gaby Hinsliff sternly reminds everyone how not to celebrate today’s special occasion.

Final indignity of the day:

Poor thing: Anthony Scaramucci (Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Getty Images

The Harvard Law alumni directory has accidentally placed Anthony Scaramucci on a list of former students who have died. That guy just can’t catch a break.

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