I'm in the women's hygiene section - 'How To Meet A Guy In The Supermarket'

Having been educated in more or less all-male establishments between the ages of 7 and 22 (well, Cambridge University was 24 males to each female at the time), I have to admit to a certain fondness for well-written chick-lit while I still try to understand how women's minds work in relation to love and romance some 30 years later.

The central core of any romance tale has to be that you actually want the girl and the boy to get all hot and sweaty together somewhere around the last chapter, whilst knowing that almost everything will get in their way en route.

As in Jane Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility', the problem here is that Quinn is looking down all the wrong aisles and taking some pretty dubious advice from friends.



The great thing about this book is that psychologically it rings much more true than its more manufactured chick-lit cousins. I don't know if Jessica really writes a column on travel and dating, or whether she has indeed picked up men in supermarkets, but the more I read, the more I came to believe that this was a thinly disguised documentary.

So, not only do I thoroughly recommend this book, but I shall pay much more attention down my local Tesco's or Co-Op from now on. There may even be a 2-for-1 offer at one of the gondola ends.