January 2026

Looking for You, the second novel in Alexander’s latest series The Perfect Passion Company, delves into the psychology of matchmaking, following Katie and her Edinburgh matchmaking bureau. This scene takes us to a university lecture, where Katie listens to the newly appointed ‘Chair in Human Matching’, Deborah Wilson, who shares her theories about human attraction.

Looking for You

“People ask me,” said Professor Deborah Wilson, “what is the single most important factor in the choice of a partner. They make it clear that they want me to identify one quality, rather than give them a confusing list. And I can understand that: Who amongst us, when it comes down to it, doesn’t want a simple explanation for why things are? Hence our desire for a simple cosmology. If you read the Book of Genesis as literal truth—and there are people who do just that—then everything is clear enough. But for most of us, well, that is perhaps a rather tall order, and we reconcile ourselves to the more complex picture. And the point about complex pictures is that the explanation for anything tends to be multifactorial. My students, by the way, love that expression. ‘It’s multifactorial,’ they say, whenever they can’t quite remember the reason for whatever it is they are considering.”

This brought laughter. Katie thought: Yes, it is multifactorial. She glanced along the row of seats and saw that the thin young man with glasses had written something on a notepad. Multifactorial, she imagined. Her gaze rested on him for a few moments longer. He was unhappy; she could tell that, even without ever having spoken to him. He lived alone in an ill-heated room, perhaps behind the old veterinary school. He had the use of a kitchenette, shared, and there would be a noisy, small fridge in which he kept his bottle of milk, and a wedge of cheese from the Victor Hugo delicatessen. His unhappiness was multifactorial, she decided. He would have had a girlfriend, who played the piano, she thought, but who went off with somebody else to live down in England somewhere.

“However,” the professor continued, “I can produce, if pressed to do so, a list of three or four factors that are of particular significance in assortative matching. These, I believe, are the weightier factors operating in many instances, and any one of them may be the factor which tips the scales on the process of choice. Mind you, it is very important to understand that choice in these matters is likely to be a subconscious process. Few of us say to ourselves: I am going to choose Susan because of her dimples, or Jim because of his healthy bank balance, or, as I hasten to point out, Susan because of her bank balance and Jim because of his dimples. Those may be exactly the factors that predispose us to the identification and acceptance of a partner, but in many, if not the majority, of cases we are unaware of the reasons that lie behind our choice. But that, I suspect, is the way that most of us lead our lives, most of the time: we are unaware of the reasons why we do the things we do; unaware of the extent to which our lives are mapped out by events that may have happened even before we were born; unaware of the way in which the habits and preferences of our parents dictate the way we behave. We inherit so much from those who precede us—their sorrows and their defeats may cast a shadow that conceals from us the sun, although we may never work out for ourselves why it seems so dark.”

There was almost complete silence in the lecture theatre. The students, normally a restless audience, sat quite still; somebody cleared his throat, suppressing a cough; a paper rustled almost inaudibly.

“Now,” said Professor Wilson, “you might be wondering what factors might be on that short list of mine.”

The tension eased. One or two heads nodded. A young woman, a student, seated immediately in front of Katie whispered to her friend, “Green eyes.” The friend giggled, and responded, “Pecs.”

Katie felt a surge of irritation. You silly girl, she thought. Of what possible importance were firm pectoral muscles, or green eyes, for that matter? Of course, eyes could say something about character, about soul, and that was obviously important, but muscles—what did they say? Nothing. But then she reminded herself that these students were barely nineteen and that was . . . eleven years ago. Eleven years would be time enough for them to learn that there were far more important things than physical characteristics. Suddenly she felt her age. If this was what thirty was like, then what would it be like to be forty? Would she then be thinking about the fecklessness of thirty-year- olds?

“Geography,” said Professor Wilson. “That, in a sense, is at the top of the list. Yes, geography. Those of you in this audience who are currently single but who imagine that in the future at some time you will have a partner . . .” She looked out into the audience. There was an outbreak of slightly nervous laughter.

“That destiny, of course, is increasingly less compulsory in a world of individual self-determination; but for those of you who are in that position, you have no doubt an idea of whom you might like to find. A sympathetic mate? Somebody who makes you feel good? Somebody who shares your interests? Yes, to all of those, but that is likely to happen only—and this is an important qualification—only if such a person turns up in your immediate vicinity. In other words, the fact that such people exist somewhere, does not mean that they will occur in your life. You, I have to tell you, are likely to marry somebody who lives very close to you. So if you fancy the person a couple of seats away from where you are now sitting—or in the row behind you—then my message to you is this: you’re in with a good chance.”

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Looking for You is available now in paperback from Polygon (£9.99, paperback)