Another friend of mine told me that her partner was younger than she is. That makes five women I know, who in some way, shape or form, are married to, live with, or have dated men younger than themselves, and in some cases the age gap has been significant.

Life is curious, which is what makes it so worthwhile, at least for those minds like mine that puzzle over things like this. There's a personal element here as well; all these women are around my age, so what does this mean for single men like me. But one thing at a time. Why are women going for younger models?

There's the easy lob answer: unfulfilled maternal instincts. Possibly.

Or what about this: are these are all women who carry the mental scars from vastly unsatisfying relationships with men of a roughly equivalent age, where the echo of he's a" typical man, can't commit" still roars around, so they go for someone younger, who has still to acquire these unpleasant masculine traits, therefore innocent and potentially pliable. It's a guess, not answer, by the way.

Perhaps it's the allure, the excitement, even competitive flaunting, which I'm pretty certain some women engage in, "...of look what I've pulled..I've still got it...". My competitive female theory comes, bizarrely, from seeing women try to over-reach each other in, of all places, a yoga class.

Then again, it could be this bald, simple, unvarnished fact: men of the same age, early to late forties in my case, remind them inelegantly of their own inevitable ageing.