6 Degrees of Separation - A True Story

Tom & Corrin meet for the
first time at the party - even
the Ray-Bans were a match

Are we really just six steps away?

There have been many reports that support the concept - science papers, Microsoft adding weight to it, not to mention a game called The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where inebriated students try to link him to another actor through their co-stars in six steps or less.
Well, this weekend I was presented with some solid proof of my own.

In A Nut-Shell...

To qualify things slightly, it wasn’t quite the entire world, but a link that started in Milton Keynes, England went into the ether, was picked up by chance in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, transferred to a small English village in Cumbria where the cycle completed at a party I attended this weekend (no, it wasn't a Ray-Ban party, although it might as well have been).

There’s Always A Backstory...

The family and I were in Cumbria this weekend for the 40th birthday of a dear friend I’ve known for over four years now. Back then, I was working in Cumbria and staying at a lovely Inn during the week, The Blacksmiths Arms in Talkin. It is a very popular place to eat and drink and by chance one night I stuck up a conversation with Karen and Simon Dodd, who live and work in the area. We got on well from the start discovering a mutual love of gin - the pub must have ten or fifteen different varieties on their shelves. One night we sampled the lot and continued on back at their place after hours - not a frequent pastime I might add. In my time staying in Talkin I became good friends with Simon and Karen as I did with many other regulars in and around the pub. After a year, I finished my contract in Cumbria to take on a new role in Finsbury Square, London. Normally, that would be where the story ends, but such are the ties that I made with the place and the people, I have made time to visit every six months or so.

“Come on up, we are having a party…”

So to this weekend and the long-anticipated party. We were staying at the house of some other friends I had made during my time in Cumbria, the equally lovely John and Hilary Holland - their house in Castle Carrock being just a ten-minute drive away. On arrival at the party I was introduced to faces old and new, one of them Steve Clarke told me that his girlfriend, Corrin Butler had read my book. I was intrigued to know which one of my Cumbrian collective had made the recommendation. Corrin told me that she had been given the book by her brother, Edward Ruadh Butler, a journalist and author living in Northern Ireland (Swordland is a great book, by the way). Amazed, I asked how he found the book, to which she replied that it had been read by his bride-to-be Emma Barr. Emma shared a love of crime fiction with Corrin and so made sure that Edward passed it on to her. 

Hold on a minute…

How did Emma find it, I asked, becoming more amazed at this opening conversation with someone I’d met just minutes beforehand. Apparently, Emma had received the book as a present from her mother, Mary Barr who had found The Pink Herring online at Amazon and bought it on spec. Now I am gob-smacked because Corrin tells me she has only lived in Talkin for the past two months, making friends with Karen and Simon as I had done, four years earlier. Simon and Karen had no idea that Corrin had read The Pink Herring, which is an amazing coincidence in itself, but added to the convoluted journey it had made to get to her, any doubts I may have harboured about the six degrees of separation theory were just blown clear out of the water. 

So, let’s spell that out…

1. Mary finds and buys The Pink Herring for her daughter Emma on Amazon in Northern Ireland;
2. Emma reads the book, likes it and asks her fiancé, Edward to pass it on to his sister, Corrin in Cumbria;
3. Corrin reads the book and talks about it to her boyfriend, Steve;
4. The night before the party, Steve talks to Simon about who is invited;
5. Simon mentions me, my background and the book - Steve puts two and two together;
6. I am introduced to Steve and Corrin and the cycle is completed.

Finally, the big ask...

In the spirit of the six degrees, I am asking anyone who reads this blog to share the heck out it on their social networks to see if we can flush out any other similar stories to mine. 

Please don’t be shy, pass it on - go on, pick a button...