Q I’m feeling really lonely. I have a lovely husband and enjoy my job, but have no friends to confide in. I lost touch with most of my old schoolmates long ago, and while I made some friends when my children were small, we drifted apart as they grew older. Lockdown has allowed me not to think about this, but now we are emerging, I would dearly love to make new friends, but don’t know how to do this in my 50s. A Thank you for sharing your experience of loneliness, which many people will identify with, particularly as the pandemic has cruelly kept us apart from the ones we care for. And well done for writing in — it can be hard to acknowledge you are lonely, let alone discuss it.