Alice Judge-Talbot married her university sweetheart at 23 and had two children, before their happily-ever after crumbled and she found herself a divorced single mother on the dating scene.

Here, she shares an exclusive extract from her new book 'The Back-Up Plan'...

As a married person, I always enjoyed meeting new people and discovering new things, so I reckoned my dating life should be no different.

I expected glittering conversation over bottles of wine, interesting individuals who would change my perspective on life and love, and I figured that as an approaching-30 mum of two with only two evenings off a fortnight my spare time was precious: I didn’t want to spend it with men who didn’t fit my idea of perfection – or, at least, who didn’t get close to it.

So focused was I in my quest for the perfect man that I decided to draw up a list of things I wanted in one. My thought was that, if they didn’t tick off at least half of the things on my list, then they probably weren’t going to be the one for me.

I mean, if methodical, precise and ambitious worked for me at work, why wouldn’t it apply to my love life, too?