The Science of Love and Betrayal, By Robin Dunbar

According to Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, Jane Austen had it about right. Picky women must accept the "curate option" or else meet their biological comeuppance.

In this page-turning exploration of the nature of romantic love , Dunbar assesses how far human mating behaviour is grounded in our evolutionary history, and why neurological hardwiring makes us fatally receptive to tall, regularly-featured men in riding boots.

Drawing on the love lives of gibbons, voles and assorted wild-life he explains why being spurned by a lover can cause your entire body to ache and why monogamy is better for brain development than promiscuity.