As London dawns on a gloomy September morning, it seemed such an unlikely place for my first encounter with Harry Styles, the legendary czar of the charming style of music, that I wondered perhaps if something had been lost in translation. But then there's the gleefully enthusiastic Styles, hiding behind a festive yellow bandana mask and a sweatshirt of his own design, strikingly printed with three portraits of his pinup intellectual, author Alain de Botton. "I love his writing," Styles says. “I think it's brilliant. I saw him give a talk about the keys to happiness, and how one of the keys is living among friends and how true friendship arises from being vulnerable with someone ”. In turn, De Botton's 2016 novel The Course of Love taught Styles that "when it comes to relationships, you just hope you're good at it ... [but] having a real relationship with someone is a skill." , one that Styles himself has often had to perfect himself in the relentless light of public attention, and in the company of such high-profile lovers as Taylor Swift and ... well, Styles is too much of a gentleman to name names.