The 10 Tribes of Friends ; One of the Joys of City Living Is That You Can Have a Different Mate for Every Occasion

Summary

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NICKY Haslam recently threw a party for 800 of his closest friends. Asked how he managed to remember them all, let alone keep in touch with them, he replied simply, "Lists." Haslam's friendship style is eclectic: "Paris Hilton meet Alan Yentob." That might be taking it to extremes, but a new study this week says that for most of us, having just 10 good friends is the key to happiness. Fewer than five and we're more likely to be prone to depression and loneliness.

Apparently we make an average of 400 friends over a lifetime, of whom only 10 per cent stay the course (we're still each blaming the other for who dropped whom first). For urban dwellers, they tend to come in a variety of guises: one of the pleasures of living in the city is that you can see so many different tribes of friends for the different parts of our jigsaw lives.

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The 10 Tribes of Friends ; One of the Joys of City Living Is That You Can Have a Different Mate for Every Occasion

Here's our guide to urban friendship and its pitfalls.

THE OLD FRIEND Sometimes from school, sometimes the "friend from home" (if home is outside London). They...

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