Cities are some of my favourite places. I am at my most comfortable right in the heart of a city, being part of its energy, watching the people. London, of course, is my favourite, although I will admit to pangs of anxiety if I ever have to leave the large-scale section of the A-Z map. When I sleep in my bedroom at the office, I wake up to a Mary Poppins scene of the rooftops of London and am reminded of the legions who live and work within a few hundred metres of my front door.

With all those people in such a small area, you would think that meeting people would be easy. But I still seem to have a large entourage of eligible girlfriends who are attractive, solvent, clever and great company, but for some unknown reason remain unmarried and in many cases are not in a relationship of any kind. And that doesn’t just go for my London girlfriends. Why is this? Where are all the men in these cities? Don’t they want girlfriends? Are they all married, or homosexual, or just extraordinarily fussy?