Ben Aitken and Will Buckingham: Get by with a Little Help...
Two different books by Ben Aitken and Will Buckingham look at the power of friendship and human connection.
About Ben Aitken and Will Buckingham: Get by with a Little Help...
Ben Aitken's The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple tells the story of recently widowed, Winnie, 84 and in need of some companionship. Someone to help with the weekly food shop and offer tips on the crossword. Ben, 34, was looking for a new housemate.
As the UK was locked down in 2020, Ben and Winnie's lives interwove, forming an unlikely friendship, where lessons were learnt (heat the red wine in the oven with the plates; preserve or pickle whatever you can; never throw anything away) and grief, both personal and that of a nation, was explored.
Will Buckingham's Hello, Stranger: How We Find Connection in a Disconnected World tells the story of seeking solace, following the death of Will's partner, throwing the door open to engaging with new people. Now, as we reflect on our experiences of the pandemic and its enforced separations, and as global migration figures ever more prominently in our collective future, Buckingham brings together insights from philosophy, anthropology, history and literature to explore how our traditions of meeting the other can mitigate the issues of our time. Taking in stories of loneliness, exile and friendship from classical times to the modern day, and alighting in adapting communities from Birmingham to Myanmar, Hello, Stranger asks: how do we set aside our instinctive xenophobia - fear of outsiders - and embrace our equally natural philoxenia - love of strangers and newness?
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