Philosopher and author Alain de Botton backtracks on bagging Brisbane as ugly city

THE man who proclaimed Brisbane was one of the ugliest cities in the world is now backtracking. Find out why

BEAUTY may or may not be in the eye of the beholder, but the ugly truth is that a spot of self-promotion is impossible to resist.

Brisbane bore the brunt of an unprovoked attack from noted UK-based philosopher and author Alain de Botton yesterday, after he fired off a blog post slamming the capital’s waterfront as “ugly” and “a mess” as he flew into town to spruik his latest book.

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“No one looks at the waterfront of Brisbane ... and feels deeply moved by the grace and sweetness of the scene,” de Botton writes in the post.

“While most people find the centre of Paris wonderful and others will delight in the winding streets of Siena, no one on the planet responds deeply to the brutal cross-city expressway and chunky, stained office blocks.”

De Botton says unchecked development has led to “chaotic ugliness” in the CBD, and while “everyone thinks Brisbane is a bit of a mess”, people were too afraid to “state the obvious”.

Alain de Botton delivers a speech at QUT Kelvin Grove. Pic: Adam Smith

The post provoked outrage online, and the timing could not have been better for the Swiss-born philosopher, whose book — which The Courier-Mail has decided not to name — is conveniently about sensationalism and superficiality in the news media.

After arriving in Brisbane, de Botton conducted a number of interviews with the sensationalist media before holding two lectures at an entrance fee of $35 a pop, with plenty of his books available to buy.

It only took a few questions from The Courier-Mail about his blog post — which was accompanied by a photo of Ipswich’s CBD — before de Botton flew off the handle, accusing the paper of laziness and intellectual dishonesty in pursuing a “nonsense piece of controversy”, tying the comments back into the subject of his new book.

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De Botton stormed out of the interview, declining to be photographed, but noting that we probably had images of him on file which we could use.

Fearing a hostile reception at a public lecture last night, de Botton backed away from his comments, but not until he asked the media to stop recording.

“I just want them to press pause on that record so that nothing that I say now will appear on the ABC,” he said.

“I’m terribly sorry. I discovered that I have become a news story.

“I had declared Brisbane not just the ugliest city but apparently the ugliest city in the world.

“Sorry to disappoint people, but I said absolutely no such thing, and it just shows the power of the news to instil a narrative which then becomes lodged in people’s minds.

“I want to apologise to the good people of Brisbane. I have been made to see the error of my ways. Your city is beautiful.”