“I’d talk to the TV.” Those words caught my attention in a BBC report, and then my thoughts turned to my mother. The report about paid companionship in China described the loneliness of Yang, a 91-year-old woman living on the outskirts of Beijing. After her husband...
We say people matter most. But would someone looking at our diary believe us? I have been sitting with that question. It feels particularly awkward for someone who writes a newsletter called The Connection Revolution. I can spend time thinking about connection,...
I still remember crying as I watched Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi in a cinema in Leicester Square. We had made a special trip to London, just days after the film’s release. Watching it became a defining moment in my life, and I have returned to it many times...
On a recent Friday afternoon, I was boarding a train when I noticed a woman with a large pram. She had a baby with her, along with her three-year-old son and a friend. I offered to help lift the pram into the carriage. She thanked me profusely, and we began chatting....
A friend recently sent me a voice note containing a question I have found surprisingly difficult to put down: “Where in your life is fear still running you?” He was not talking only about the obvious fears that make our hearts race. He mentioned the...
Peace may begin within us, but it changes the world through the way we see, hear and treat one another. Those of us old enough to remember 11 September 2001 will probably never forget where we were when the world seemed to stop. I was working in the City of...
The loss of a dear friend led me to discover the deeper meaning of noble friendship — and to question how I show up for the people I love. Recently, a dear friend of mine and his wife tragically died in a car crash in Canada while they were on holiday from London....
What could change in the next six months if you stopped carrying everything alone? Recently, I wrote about the life-changing power of one simple introduction. An introduction matters because it creates the possibility of a conversation. And sometimes, one honest...
One thoughtful introduction could spark a friendship, a marriage, a livelihood—or an entirely new future. More than twenty years ago, I introduced two of my friends. One was a friend from my schooldays, while the other was my regular squash opponent. I knew them both...
What becomes possible when one invitation creates the space for strangers, old friends and entire communities to find one another? Last Sunday, a corner of Regent’s Park became a meeting place for friendships spanning decades, families, neighbours, old colleagues and...
