Robert spent the first part of his career as a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and the second as a partner in a leading firm of management consultants. He now divides his time between writing and consulting independently.

Robert writes non-fiction that applies philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature to the concerns of everyday life. His book Breakfast with Socrates: the Philosophy of Everyday Life is published by Profile Books in the UK, Free Press in the US, and is now appearing in translation around the world. The follow-up is Driving with Plato: The Meaning of Life’s Milestones, now out in the UK and US.