Our culture of grieving is changing: a manly pat on the back will no longer do | Michael Bywater

Robert Peston found his male friends insensitive after his wife's death - but the problem is not men

We must all grieve, sooner or later. Even divinity doesn't exempt you. "Jesus wept" is famously the shortest verse in the Bible, and he wept because his friend Lazarus was dead. Not just emotion, but a matter of doing the right thing. "Then said the Jews," it goes on, "Behold how he loved him!"

What man, after all, would not weep if his friend died? Or the friend of a friend, or a friend's wife? What man could remain stony-eyed or, worse, cheerily encouraging?