When you’re looking for love and it seems like you might not ever find it, remember you probably have access to an abundance of it already, just not the romantic kind. This kind of love might not kiss you in the rain or propose marriage. But it will listen to you, inspire and restore you. It will hold you when you cry, celebrate when you’re happy

As you get older, the abstract concept of love won’t be exciting any more. This is a good thing. The exact details of an imaginary boyfriend used to keep my mind in a never-ending fantasy groove. Real life was always a disappointment because the narrative of romance in my head was completely unattainable. Love should be about aligning your life

It’s a hackneyed notion for a reason: a couple need to be really, really good friends.

No matter how level-headed and wise you become, you are, I’m afraid, an animal still. I believe we are never immune to the potential humiliation of giddy, all-encompassing, adolescent romance. Lust is a silent disco enjoyed only by those in the throes of it – it allows you to dance and get lost in a song no one else can hear. The good thing is, as

A much-underrated and incredibly simple considering factor when it comes to choosing a partner is how much you love their company.

Shared interests are one of the most misguided considering factors when it comes to choosing a partner. Deciding that someone is a good person, or your soulmate, or made of exactly the same stuff as you simply because you both love the music of George Harrison is ridiculous.

One of the biggest challenges you face as you get older as a single person is resisting cynicism. It’s so, so hard not to feel betrayed and let down by love and turn that into nihilism, scepticism or anger. But cynicism, while funny and self-protecting, is very easy. Finding trust, sustaining hope – that’s the real art-form.

I had arrived at the big, brand-new number, and it wasn’t so bad after all. It was a place where I felt the same promise of boundless life ahead of me as I did aged seventeen, and perhaps I always would. A place where I remained full of wonder, hungry for experience, so lacking in wisdom. A place where I’d make mistakes as well as good choices, and

I googled all the ages of past Rear of the Year winners and drew comfort from the fact that Carol Vorderman won when she was fifty. I was further pacified when I watched Singing in the Rain and frantically calculated that Gene Kelly was forty when he starred in it. I don’t know why, but it was, all at once, so incredibly important to know the doors