James

If every group has a person who quietly holds it together, it's James. He's the one who checks you got home, refills your drink before you notice it's empty, and will absolutely, definitively, get you lost on the way to a wedding.

He is soft where it counts and stubborn where it doesn't. He is, without asking to be, everyone's second favourite person to sit next to at dinner — and their first choice to call at 2am.

"The day James lost the car keys in the sea. We stayed until sunset. He blamed a seagull."

"Pint at a christening. Held it high through the whole ceremony."

"'I know a shortcut.' Reader: he did not."

"11pm. A curry. No questions asked. Left before I woke."

"Laughing at his own joke. Again. And it was, once again, quite good."