When I interviewed Andrew O’Hagan ten years ago about his Booker longlisted novel The Illuminations , the most striking thing that he said was:

Friendship is more important than almost anything. I always thought it was a sort of deliverance, having a good friend, that they would bring a generosity and an unprejudiced eye to your ambition, your hopes and your thoughts in a way that family can’t always do. I mean what is family but a lovable collection of prejudices, some in your favour and some not?

Although I agreed with him, I was intrigued that someone who was both a parent and a sibling would feel this way.

The importance of friendship is clearly an ongoing preoccupation. His 2020 novel Mayflie s – since made into a TV series with Martin Compston – examined male friendship; and l

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