At 3.00am, the man sits up, perches for a moment of quiet contemplation on the edge of his mattress, then springs out of bed. A brief self-appraisal in the bathroom mirror follows, then he’s downing bottles of water laced with various health-inducing tinctures. Next, he gears up and he’s out into the dark streets for a swift half marathon before even the milkman is awake. Back home, it’s a brief weight session, a shower followed by a Patrick Bateman-esque skincare routine, then it’s time to check in on the side hustle. You can tell he’s concentrating because of the way he’s hunched over his laptop, lit by its eerie glow. Ten minutes later, he’s done and out the door to begin a two-hour commute to work.

It’s a tough time to be single. Apps that once promised limitless choice now feel like digital wastelands full of ghosting, burnout and endless swiping. A recent survey found that 74 per cent of British singles have “given up” or are “taking a break” from dating altogether, while more than 75 per cent of American dating-app users feel burnt out, particularly Millennials and Gen Z. The dopamine rush we get from a match just isn’t hitting the same. And Tinder’s latest innovation, height filters, has left some men feeling like the odds are stacked against them before they’ve even uploaded a profile pic. If dating in the 2010s was about swipe culture, 2025 feels like its hangover. So, where do we go from here?

Ed Sandys lives in the Lake District, in Cumbria, in the north of England, with his wife, Lucy, and their three children. Sandys runs the family estate, Graythwaite, which he took over from his parents almost three years ago. Graythwaite Estate is set over 5,000 acres of land, alongside the shores of Lake Windermere, near to where Beatrix Potter lived. The Sandys family have lived here for more than 500 years. Today, the estate has 38 holiday cottages that can be rented, including Silverholme, a Georgian manor house overlooking the lake that you can hire for stays or weddings, and activities from off-road driving to clay-pigeon shooting on offer, too. These enterprises help Sandys fund his other passion: nature preservation and land sustainability. The ambition is to repair the damage caused by the agriculture of yesteryear – intensive sheep farming, for example – and to work with local organisations to promote social responsibility in order to create a better and long-lasting future for the estate, wildlife and the people that come to enjoy it.

“When something bad happens, when it seems like the world is ending… people are like, ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna get a dog,’” Elias Weiss Friedman recently told the podcast The Happiness Lab. “‘What am I waiting for? Why am I delaying happiness?’” Weiss Friedman is the man behind The Dogist, the wildly successful Instagram account that takes a street-style lens to man’s best friend. His new book, This Dog Will Change Your Life, goes further, documenting the many ways a pet pooch can boost your health and wellbeing. And there is scientific evidence to back up his claims.

At 3.00am, the man sits up, perches for a moment of quiet contemplation on the edge of his mattress, then springs out of bed. A brief self-appraisal in the bathroom mirror follows, then he’s downing bottles of water laced with various health-inducing tinctures. Next, he gears up and he’s out into the dark streets for a swift half marathon before even the milkman is awake. Back home, it’s a brief weight session, a shower followed by a Patrick Bateman-esque skincare routine, then it’s time to check in on the side hustle. You can tell he’s concentrating because of the way he’s hunched over his laptop, lit by its eerie glow. Ten minutes later, he’s done and out the door to begin a two-hour commute to work.

It’s a tough time to be single. Apps that once promised limitless choice now feel like digital wastelands full of ghosting, burnout and endless swiping. A recent survey found that 74 per cent of British singles have “given up” or are “taking a break” from dating altogether, while more than 75 per cent of American dating-app users feel burnt out, particularly Millennials and Gen Z. The dopamine rush we get from a match just isn’t hitting the same. And Tinder’s latest innovation, height filters, has left some men feeling like the odds are stacked against them before they’ve even uploaded a profile pic. If dating in the 2010s was about swipe culture, 2025 feels like its hangover. So, where do we go from here?