The odd couple

were able to overcome the barriers and biases of readers with no great religious interest.

Friendships in general are fluid in nature, and it has been assessed that in a lifetime you go through roughly 200 friends, with 1 in 12 becoming lasting. Worryingly, our society is changing, and a study revealed that, on average, our number of trusted friends has fallen by a third in the past 20 years, and the percentage of people without close confidantes has doubled.

It further concluded that having few friends can be as detrimental to your health as being overweight or smoking. And, when faced with major illness, individuals with stronger social support were considered in a better position to survive.

In a university trial, researchers studied brain scans of 22 people, who were all instructed that they would be under threat of a small electrical shock — to either themselves, a friend, or a stranger.

They discovered that people’s brain activity, as they endured this discomfort, equated very closely to their response when a friend faced the same fate.

Charmingly, a number of studies have shown that animals can form friendships for life with creatures from a completely different species.

But is that so very different to the powerful bond that often comes about between a man and his dog? Charles Saatchi’s latest book is Holy Cow!, published by Palazzo Editions