Lessons in Duck Shooting

When you’re a forty-something divorced mother of two, finding Mr. Right might take more than a makeover.

Ally used to live, work and breathe the world of marketing: the three Ps of Packaging, Promotion, Placement, and the art of selling over-priced glamour products to overpaid glamorous women, was what she lived for; that and her husband and two children. Now in her forties, Ally’s life has changed radically. She has swapped hairspray for the distinctly less glamorous field of breakfast condiments, and her husband has swapped her for a younger model, or rather, a series of younger models. Watching The Little Mermaid is probably the nearest she’s come to an exciting date in years.

Then Ally is invited to a seminar run by a famous American dating guru: Marina Boyd claims that applying marketing principles to the dating game is the only way to a successful love life. But surely packaging and promoting hair products and perfume (let alone marmalade) can’t possibly be the same as dating and falling in love? And how on earth do you find the time for a makeover, a direct mail campaign and a branding program when your two children are raising hell at home? Ally is about to find out.