Alain de Botton strikes up unlikely friendship with One Direction's Harry Styles

The pair are all of a Twitter over philosophy

Philosopher Alain de Botton and One Direction star Harry Styles (Gotti Images)

If you thought professional cynic Charlie Brooker and ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq were an unlikely pairing, how about One Direction’s Harry Styles and philosopher Alain de Botton?

To two have struck up a friendship after de Botton yesterday challenged the One Direction star to use his huge Twitter following to educate the masses about Greek philosophy. Styles rose to the task, tweeting the line- albeit from Wikipedia- to his 10 million followers: “Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy”

The Religion for Atheists author previously told Metro: “The problem we’ve got is the most famous people in the country tend to believe things that aren’t particularly ambitious. In an ideal world Harry Styles would be teaching his 10 million Twitter followers a little more about Greek philosophy.”

The two also appear to have hit it off at a party, according to The Sun. “He was very interested in finding out about philosophy. He seems a very intelligent chap,” said the philosopher about Styles.