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Science and romance are not two words that one would usually put together; but in today’s society where every little aspect of our lives is subject to scientific observation and investigation of one sort of another, books are appearing that dissect romance and explore it from the perspective of all sorts of difficult rules. Now, would it be old-fashioned to suggest that this seems, well, a little bit cynical? After all, what happened to all those black and white films where love and romance were all powerful entities that swept everyone away without explanation? Well now it’s been replaced by biological, psychological and every other type of explanation that you could possibly want. Very well, so if we fall in love, or are attracted to people for scientific reasons what about perpetuating romance. Take Valentine’s Day for example and the millions of gifts and cards that are given worldwide – can science tell you what would absolutely be the best gift to give?

Of course it couldn’t. Well, maybe it could. The solution would most likely involve a number of different words that have far too many syllables, all boiling down to one simple thing, ‘think about what you are going to give and who you are going to give it to’. Despite what others would try and convince us giving a gift is not a scientific thing because people like different things. Obviously some things are easy, don’t buy a hot air balloon ride if your partner has vertigo but there is no way of saying why one person thinks that receiving flowers is a beautiful, thoughtful thing, and another thinks of it as a nauseating cliché, how one would go about finding the solution in a scientific form I do not know, but people try and explain these things.

Surely, though, the thing about romance is that it shouldn’t be explained. Sometimes the best gifts are completely unsuited but they are received with so much more affection because of the effort that went into them, even if the thought was misguided, or if the individual receiving a gift had already had one exactly like it the year before. It is, after all, the thought that counts. Absolutely the best way of picking a gift, of perpetuating a romance, is to just try and do what you think is best, chances are, even if you get it wrong, it will be received warmly because a gift is only as worthy as the feeling that it demonstrates.

So, ignoring the science of romance and all the other explanations, when it comes down to looking for a gift all you have to do is give it some thought. If it’s a birthday or Christmas then asking what would be ideal is surely allowed – even if you then discount it completely and go with your own judgement, but if you are looking for an impromptu, unexpected gift then you’re going to have go with your own judgement. Sometimes the best thing to do is to look through a number of different options, websites like Not On The High Street offer all sorts of different  gift ideas,  from pashminas to personalised perfume oils,  and you might see a nifty present that suits the recipient exactly.

Of course, there is the sure-fire romantic gift of an overflowing bouquet of flowers...if you're stuck for Cassanova-like ideas, then have a look at Interflora's website for flowers, flower delivery and handy florist advice. There's also (and this requires a little creativity) new photo books that you can buy on the Asda site. You can gather all your lovey-dovey pictures together and put them all in a book that's printed so it looks completely professional. Pop it on the coffee table so that all can see your love in pictures.