'People wilfully choose hectic lives to avoid their own company'

Nirpal Dhaliwal tried to spoil our return to office life after the bank holiday by railing against "busyness". In the Evening Standard, he wrote: "Slower-paced people like me - childless and working from home - can see the modern obsession with busyness for what it really is: the new religion for a godless society.

When travelling in the Third World, I was always amazed by the locals who could sit impassively during long bus and train journeys without a book, iPod or even a fidget. Now, living alone and without stimulus, I have the same ability to stare into space and watch life go by. People wilfully choose hectic family and professional lives in order to avoid their own company."

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