Friendship ring...

Your top five friends

These are the people you can call after the Nine O’Clock News if you need to. They’re there to catch your bouquet, drive you to the hospital, bail you out and pass you a tissue for the ugly crying. They’ve seen you at your worst and yet there they still are, cheering you on when you’re at your best. They’ll stand up for you, even when you’re wrong (though they might want a quick word). They’re the first people you call when something wonderful or something terrible happens. They know your family, possibly more than one generation of your family, and the names of your childhood pets. You might spend Christmas together.

Your top 15 friends

These are the people who, even if you don’t speak for months, you pick up where you left off as though you just spoke yesterday. You might spend Easter together, or go on holiday together. You’re au fait with one another’s musical tastes, favourite books and restaurants and — just to be modern — food intolerances. You know the names of each other’s pets.

Your top 50 friends

Because of Facebook and other forms of social media, you probably know more about your top 50 than you might have done in a previous generation. You know the names of their children, their birthdays, where they go on holiday and what they think about the new Doctor Who. These are the surprise guests at the table, the ones you throw in to the mix with your closer friends to liven things up a bit. You don’t necessarily make special plans to see them, but your heart lifts a bit when you see them across a crowded room. With a little effort, they might be promoted to either of the other two groups should a vacancy arise.