Hold me TIGHTER The new science of touch

In mid-February, I wrote an article about a survey that was being launched about touch and how much we want it. When I think back now, those discussions seem like the chatter of a lost Eden: the “handsiness” of office predators, the awkwardness of one cheek kiss or two, strategies to disengage from the prolonged clamminess of an extended handshake. So much focus on excessive touch. We were drowning, and now we are dying of thirst.

I remember one of my editors suggesting we include the warning from a leading virologist for people to avoid hugs and kisses. We did, though at the time it seemed an absurdity. No one was avoiding hugs or kisses. And now here we are, at a socially distant two metres. People in Britain have erected shower curtains between themselves and Grandma so they can still embrace, protected, as if in a massive hug condom. That’s how desperate they are, as desperate as that Righteous Brothers anthem: “Oh my love, my darling, I’ve