Richard Yates, the great American author of the novel Revolutionary Road, wrote a collection of stories called Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Each story described people who were isolated and unhappy in suburban America in the 1950s. If he were alive today, I wonder what he would think of the problem of loneliness? Would there be too many kinds to describe? Because today loneliness and social isolation have become problems of acute severity.

Experts say that older people are experiencing increasing periods of loneliness and isolation which leads to ill health and poor wellbeing, costing the NHS and social care services increasing amounts. It is a situation compounded by the fact that in the UK we are living longer.