The Lonely Century

Described as 'one of the world's most inspiring women' by Vogue and 'one of the world's leading thinkers' by the Observer, Noreena Hertz has an impressive track record in predicting global trends. She advises a select group of the world's leading business and political figures on strategy, economic and geo-political risk, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, millennials and post-millennials. Having graduated from university aged just nineteen, Noreena went on to complete a PhD from Cambridge University and has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After ten years at the University of Cambridge as Associate Director of the Centre for International Business and Management, in 2014 she moved to University College London where she is an Honorary Professor. Her best-selling books, The Silent Takeover, IOU: The Debt Threat and Eyes Wide Open are published in 23 countries.

'If I could issue a reading list to 10 Downing Street, I'd put this book near the top.' Guardian

'Destined to be a classic' Nouriel Roubini

'Fascinating' Sathnam Sanghera, The Times

'A hopeful book that couldn't be more important or timely' Philippa Perry

'Timely and important' Charlie Brooker

A hopeful and empowering vision for how to reconnect with each other and heal our divides.

Even before a global pandemic introduced us to terms like social distancing, loneliness was already becoming the defining condition of the twenty-first century.

But it's also one we have the power to reverse. Combining a decade of research with first-hand reporting, Noreena Hertz takes us from a 'how to communicate in real life' class for smartphone-addicted university students to bouncy castles at Belgian far-right gatherings, from 'renting a friend' and paying for cuddles in the U.S. to nursing home residents knitting bonnets for their robot caregivers in Japan.

Packed with bold solutions that we can apply at home, at work and in our neighbourhoods, and with a clear vision for what businesses and governments must do, she explores how our increasing dependence on technology, radical changes to the workplace and decades of policies that have placed self-interest above the collective good, are making us more isolated than ever before.

Noreena Hertz helps us to understand why this is the lonely century, how we got here and what each of us can do to help reduce loneliness for ourselves and our communities.