NEXT STEPS

Read Friends: Understanding The Power Of Our Most Important Relationships by Robin Dunbar (Little, Brown, £20) delves into the importance of friendships. Search If you want to reach out and befriend someone who’s isolated, visit befriending.co.uk for opportunities close to where you live.

Listen In Five Hundred Years of Friendship on BBC Sounds, Dr Thomas Dixon presents a history of the changing meaning of friendship over the centuries.