'Men are all married or gay!'

Emma Boniwell, 27, is an attractive professional and single.

Since she moved from Bath four years ago she has failed to find her ideal match.

It is no use looking at work. Of 12 staff in her office, only three are male and they are all attached.

She joined a choir when her mother suggested it as a way to meet a partner but the men are mostly older and married.

Ms Boniwell, who lives in Rotherhithe and works for an arts organisation in Kensington, said: "I'm horrified by the lack of men in the capital. I have been single for seven months. I found my last boyfriend on the internet and when I finished with him I started looking there again.

"But even when one website made me its 'date of the week' I didn't get any responses. I've told my friends that they must know single men who'd be suitable for me but they haven't come up with anyone.

"In the arts, all the men you meet are married or gay."

Among Ms Bonniwell's female friends, half are single and half have boyfriends. None are married. She said: "By the time my parents were my age, they were already married with children.

"As a schoolgirl, I used to imagine I would marry at 24 but it hasn't worked out that way."