The Ropetackle in Shoreham was bursting at the seams with philosophy enthusiasts eager to hear the latest thoughts of Alain de Botton, famous for his exploration of the everyday. The News – A User’s Manual looks at consumers’ experience of the news and offers a set of tools for re-framing and humanising the bombardment.

Alain de Botton is an engaging speaker, expertly taking the audience through his ideas about the presence of classical tragedy and vanitas in the news with a clear slideshow of images.

In the question and answer session, de Botton proved himself to be as articulate and benevolent under pressure from an audience keen to divorce themselves from the taint of “celebrity culture”.

The News promises to be a challenging read, unpicking the human element of the catastrophes and paps which litter our media intake, and encouraging us to see the inherent narrative, the connected nature of the fragments.

The event was the author’s inaugural reading before embarking on a worldwide tour – catch it if you can.

Alternatively, you could read this – www.philosophersmail.com/index.php – the website which Alain de Botton is pioneering with a group of philosophers, putting into practice what he preaches.