Recent research suggested middle-aged English people are the loneliest in Europe. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 30 per cent of UK households are now occupied by one person, 58 per cent of the adult population in England and Wales is single, and the average adult will spend nearly one third of their waking life alone — which sounds like unequivocally bad news given social isolation has been deemed as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
• Midlife loneliness: a packed diary, but something is missing
Yet these sobering statistics miss an essential part of the picture, argue the authors of a new book, Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone. Through their extensive research, the academics Netta Weinstein and
