WORDS of a writer that resonated with people around the world have been transformed into a thought provoking performance heading to Bridport.

“An epidemic is sweeping the world: an epidemic of loneliness. Never before have we, the supremely social mammal, been so isolated.

“The results are devastating: a collapse of common purpose, the replacement of civic life with a fug of consumerism, insecurity and alienation. We cannot carry on like this.”

Writer George Monbiot has called for a response to ‘this trend towards social breakdown’ in a powerful collaboration with musician Ewan McLennan in Breaking The Spell of Loneliness.

Performing at Bridport Arts Centre on November 4, George and Ewan launched their project because they believe that nothing has greater potential to unite and delight than music.

The project began with an article that journalist George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian, about the age of loneliness. The article went viral, and several publishers asked him to write books about it. But George had a different idea.

He approached Ewan McLennan – a musician whose work he greatly admired – and proposed a collaboration.

Together they have written an album, a mixture of ballads and anthems, some sad, some stirring, with an aim to try to break the spell ‘that appears to have been cast upon us’; the spell of separation. It touches upon issues as varied as our relationship with nature, our capacity for altruism and co-operation and the politics that lie behind loneliness, and the ways people are together overcoming this social scourge.

In conjunction with the album’s release, George and Ewan are performing a small number of special concerts. George will narrate the show, describe the ideas behind the songs, and encourage members of the audience to engage with each other, both then and beyond the concert.

Ewan will sing the songs and perform the music that has emerged from this innovative collaboration.

n Breaking The Spell of Loneliness, at Bridport Arts Centre on November 4 at 7.30pm.