We often hear that technology is fragmenting the world, reducing our relationships to screen exchanges rather than the real stuff, and so on, as if machines – rather than humans – were responsible for maintaining our mental health. I wanted to write something which explored the opposite possibility: that phones give us a power to affect and improve each other’s lives that we have never had in history before. Contacts was of course written before the bewildering events of 2020, but the lockdown has reminded a lot of us how dependent we all are upon the core relationships in life, on our networks, and perhaps how much we’ve taken some of those relationships for granted. Contacts is about the fact that, for all its dangers, the age of instant communication gives us what is basically a superpower … If we only choose to use it.

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About the Author

Mark Watson is the acclaimed author of eight novels, which have been published in twelve languages. He is also a stand-up comedian and has won numerous awards in Britain and Australia. He regularly appears on TV, has had several Radio 4 series and been named the Edinburgh Festival’s highest achiever of the decade by The Times. He lives in North London.

Also by Mark Watson

A Light-Hearted Look at Murder

Bullet Points

Eleven

The Knot

Hotel Alpha

Dan and Sam: A Graphic Novel

The Place that Didn’t Exist

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