by Alain de Botton

When I started writing books at the age of 23, I often thought of Philip Roth's remark, made in answer to a question of why he had chosen his particular profession, that he had become a writer 'in order to meet girls.'

I wasn't meeting too many girls, and it was in part in response to this absence that I was inspired to write. Writing is - after all - the best way to fill in the gap and to imagine alternatives.

My first book was called Essays in Love. It was published when I was 24 and living on my own,rather unhappily. Years passed, there was more loneliness, then finally, aged 31, I met the woman who is now my wife.

Three years after that, the publisher of Essays in Love came to me and said they wanted to give my book a new jacket. Did I have any ideas? I suggested that they take a picture of my wife, the person whose absence had prompted the book in the first place. So Charlotte duly went to a library to be photographed reading a book - and the resulting image is what you see on the cover.
Love came full circle.