Why the one you fancy never fancies you - Richard Robinson

The real reasons why love never goes how you plan - Murphy's Laws of Love

How can the pursuit of love be so confusing? This wonderfully entertaining, quirky book shows how the main cause is not out there in the world, but right here, inside our minds. As we spin round on the whirligig of romance, remorse and retribution, we grab the wrong end of every stick in sight, with hilarious consequences.

Psychologists point to several tricks pulled by our desperate minds when trying to cope with the world, from nave science and cognitive miserliness to emotional intelligence and living by memes. These are the bedrock of Murphy's Laws of Love. Dealing with the world has to mean ignoring most of it. The story that is simplest is the story we like best. We see what we expect to see.

Popular science writer Richard Robinson examines all the bewildering stages of our love lives - from adolescence - the time when your parents seem to be shrinking, your best friends are becoming rivals, and hated enemies are suddenly rather attractive - to the sunset of life where kids are shocked to find sex still goes on.