Friendship in Fiction: 'Tell me your company, and I’ll tell you who you are'

Aristotle called it 'one soul in two bodies', Coleridge 'the sheltering tree'. Jane Austen declared it 'the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love', whilst Maya Angelou compared it to trying to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Whatever definition we give to friendship, it's always worth celebrating. From best-loved classics to exciting fresh reads, we've gathered together some brilliant novels that explore the varied ways friendship can enrich and shape one's life – and one's person. Indeed, as Don Quixote's loyal sidekick Sancho Panza proverbially puts it, 'Tell me your company, and I’ll tell you who you are'.