Francis Boulle is one of a new breed of celebrity – he is not a reality TV star as such but a cast member of the show Made in Chelsea which follows the lives of he and his friends extravagant lifestyles in part documentary, part soap format.

When I meet Francis, he has just finished partaking in the comedy debate at the Cambridge Union with the motion “This House Would Rather live in Cambridge than in Chelsea”. The union chamber was filled to capacity and even the bar was completely packed. This extraordinary turnout, which surmounts Julian Assange, is perhaps testament to TV’s ability to create celebrities out of what are effectively normal people living their lives.

Francis and I are ushered to a private area in the courtyard at the front of the Union, where I am able to ask him how he thought the debate went: “I thought it was great fun. I went into the debate a bit in the dark but I thought it went well and was really funny. I’ve always been a big fan of the Footlights and I hope they do really well.”

Boulle is an alumnus of Edinburgh University where he studied Philosophy, but he tells me that “I really like Cambridge and I always regretted that you could only apply to either Oxford or Cambridge.”

Francis applied to Oxford where he felt he had performed well enough at interview to secure a place, though ultimately unsuccessful in his application.

He continues, “I really do love Cambridge and every time I come back here, I’m shown a good time.”

I move on to talk about the show that has made Francis famous. Made in Chelsea has just started its secondseries and its success continues to grow. Rumours surrounding the show suggest that Boulle was in fact the creative idea behind the show but this is not true, he says.

“I didn’t come up with the idea for the show, but I was one of the first people they approached. I said no initially and then I agreed to it later. I didn’t agree to do this show, what I did agree to do was a pilot for what was going to be the London version of the US show ‘The Hills’.”

He adds, “I did it not because I thought it would be a hit over here but because I thought it would be a hit in America. But, it’s been such a relief that the show has been liked over here. I was quite expecting the opposite with the prevalent inverted snobbery in the UK.”

Despite the shows success, it has received criticism for its mock documentary format. I decide to ask Francis to what extent Made in Chelsea is a documentary and to what extent it is a soap.

“You wouldn’t be able to make a show of this sort if it wasn’t slightly contrived. But, the things that people think are fake are basically real.

“People think the show is scripted when it is not; people think we all weren’t friends or in relationships with each other before the show which is untrue.

“But it is staged in the sense that you come to a location and you have to get something from the scene but they really do leave it to you in terms of what you want to do. There is a dynamic collaboration between the cast and the crew.”

Francis is a businessman and has in the past said that business is a modern man’s warfare. His ventures include diamonds and the website sexymp.co.uk as well as a number of philanthropic projects. He has now decided to turn his hand to writing and will be releasing a book entitled The Entrepreneur’s Code to Life.

“It’s basically a set of laws or rules which I have gleaned from my experience that I feel entrepreneurs should live by”, Boulle says. “These range from the ordinary - for example, not making networking a nine-to-five activity, but instead making it a lifestyle - to the very small rules like never doing business with your family.

“I back it up with anecdotes and personal experiences and sometimes a counterargument to the law.”

After speaking with Francis for some time, it becomes clear that he is a very well spoken, confident and charismatic man. He has in the past been romantically linked to Emma Watson and has been ranked as one of Tatler’s most eligible men.

He describes this accolade as ‘flattering’, but adds that he has always wanted to be defined by his own achievements and not his parents, and thus tries to shrug this label off.

At the young age of 22, Francis Boulle has achieved great success. Unlike a number of people born into a position such as his, Francis has succeeded in his own right and has a real entrepreneurial spirit. I have little doubt his success will continue.