All the Lonely People : Conversations on Loneliness

Synopsis

An intimate portrait of loneliness, All the Lonely People sees psychologist Dr Sam Carr collect hours of conversations with the young and old, single parents, carers, teenagers and the bereaved. Their heartfelt stories are shared over countless cups of tea.

In stories of love and loss, of trauma and hope, told from care homes, living rooms, classrooms and kitchens, Carr discovers that while each of their stories is utterly unique, they are all born out of the same desire for human connection. As Carr interweaves these touching and powerful tales with his own personal narrative, he opens a window onto the inner lives of regular people – the forgotten, misplaced or misjudged – who all feel isolated in some way.

Sparking a profound conversation about a universal emotion, which may simply be an inevitable part of life in an increasingly disjointed world, he questions what we can do to build stronger human relationships, and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Author

Sam Carr is a psychologist and social scientist with the Department of Education and Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He was the director of The Loneliness Project, a partnership between the University of Bath and Guild Living (a later living retirement community provider). He has written extensively in the media about his research and has spoken about it on local and national radio, as well as being an academic expert on various television documentaries. Sam lives in rural Wiltshire with his son and their cat. All the Lonely People is his first book.