Getting close to another human isn’t the trouble free process we might imagine. It’s worth understanding just how frightening closeness can be
We know by instinct that humour is pretty important in relationships. But the reasons are often left a little vague.
It isn’t that we crudely want entertainment – there are enough comedians on TV. We don’t just want a laugh. We want to find a way to be annoyed with, and criticise one another’s most maddening sides without eliciting a drama, with lightness and a special kind of diplomatic immunity…