Here’s the tragedy of ‘mateship’ – many men just don’t talk about stuff that really matters | Paul Daley

Some things get easier with age. The intensity of my friendships and the emotionally sharing nature of them has deepened

I keep hearing it from men and women in my orbit: too many men in their lives are lonely and have no real mates with whom to workshop their intense emotional stuff.

It's no surprise: boys of my era were raised to compete with one another - and the world. Resilience was everything. If this sounds Darwinian, it is. Feelings. We all had them, of course. Buried deep inside. Fears? You bet. They were there to be swallowed. Conquered. But rarely shared unless life threatening.