32+27 = wedded bliss

You may have thought the key to successful marriage was finding the perfect partner - well, not according to one leading statistician.

Prof Dennis Lindley has come up with a formula which could help save the institution of marriage and stem the soaring divorce rate.

He claims M=Y+(1/e[X-Y]) delivers the optimum age for people to tie the knot - 32 for men and 27 for women. After that, the chances of finding an ideal partner become increasingly slim - with some condemned to spend the rest of their lives searching for love, Prof Lindley said.

To find an optimum marriageable age, subtract the earliest age you start looking for a partner (the professor assumes 16) from the latest age you would expect to marry (he says 60 for men, 46 for women), multiply it by a logarithmic formula (which works out at 0.36), then add it again to your startingage.

Confused? Well, Prof Lindley isn't. Now 80 and married for 56 years, he said the formula will help men decide when to stop playing the field.

The academic, from London's University College, added: 'In the run-in period, men are learning about ladies. But they mustn't do this for too long.'

Based on the professor's sums, DJs Norman Cook and Zoà Ball are close to having a perfect marriage - despite her dalliance with another man - because he was 35 and she was 28 when they tied the knot.