A Sparkling tale of life, love - and the perils of getting your own way. Hector is in search of a woman. Not because he wants to fall in love but because, after the failure of his first marriage, he wants a son. But as he determinedly pursues his ambition, he underrates the force of his charm and, nine months later, finds he has more than one heir to choose from...In his search for the 'perfect' wife, Hector complicates the lives of four very different women; Jess the repressed photographer, Wendy the fluffy doormat, Caroline the career executive, and Zillah the bohemian. And as Hector strives to bring his life back under control he discovers that biology is stranger than logic, and is forced to acknowledge that it's the best laid plans that often fall most spectacularly apart.

Maggie Makepeace came to writing late in life, having begun her career as a zoologist. She had a number of jobs in scientific research and Wildlife Trusts, the most rewarding of which was a 3-year contract on a Scottish estuary studying the social behaviour of shelducks. For a brief time in the 70s she was a television presenter for Yorkshire TV and London Weekend, and gradually became more interested in the psychology of human behaviour, especially communication - or the lack of it - and in the way that some people attempt to control the lives of others.