The road to publishing a book is a long, winding and sometimes rocky one, and I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all my family and friends for helping me along with it (I would keep hindering my progress by refusing to remove those four-inch heels).

I would also like to say thank you to the team at Summersdale for all their support, in particular Stewart Ferris and the unwavering patience of Jennifer Barclay, Carol Baker, Lucy York, Sarah Herman, Elly Donovan, Nicky Douglas and Robert Melhuish. In addition, thank you to Adrian Weston and Raft for their tireless work on the book’s behalf, Veronica Palmieri and Salma Conway for their fabulous SG illustrations and Sam Hiyate for his North American perspective. Anthony Pye-Jeary, Tom Littlechild and everyone at Dewynters have kindly designed the most amazing website.

The Single Girl’s Guide would never have been written without some very specific help and I am indebted to: Ele Clow and the Queen’s girls; Darryl Samaraweera; Daniel Bee (the best publicist in the world!); Wyckoff and his other two angels, Cat and Zoe; Fin; Goli; his Bobness; Wheeler for his semantics; Amanda Johnson; Charlie ‘Slashie’ Roberts… and LG for sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge on the female species. I would have been lost without the wise words of Caroline Turner, Lucinda, Jess, H, Yael, Diane, Josh, Frances, Julie, Peter, Louise and Theo.

I would not have got here without the encouragement to continue writing over the years from some truly special people in the literary world: Ed Victor; Lizzy Kremer; Marjory Chapman; Toby Eady; Peter James; and Robert Huntington. Thank you so much for making sure I hung on in there and I do so hope to work with you on future projects.

Words cannot express my gratitude to Mummy, Daddy, Nick and Mads.

Alex and Frankie, you are not forgotten.