Olivia Laing - "The Lonely City"

Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categorise. Like depression, a state with which it often intersects, it can run deep in the fabric of a person, as much a part of one's being as laughing easily or having red hair. Then again, it can be transient, lapping in and out in reaction to external circumstance, like the onleiness that follows on the heels of a bereavement, breka-up or change in social circles.