The heroine in Deborah Moggach’s latest novel, The Black Dress, is a 70-year-old
woman whose husband has recently left her.
She discovers she misses not only the companionship and occasional sex, but also his ability to deal with practical tasks such as fixing the central-heating clock and paying the house insurance.
So she sets out to find a new man to perform these roles, by going to funerals in the hope of meeting a freshly widowed man before he