We all know the power of a great love story. In films, literature, television - a “happy ending” is shorthand for the main characters coupling up at the end. But are these romantic aspirations really a key ingredient for a happy and fulfilled life?

Matthew Syed explores the idea that you can be long term single, and happy.

Social scientist Bella DePaulo always knew that marriage wasn’t for her. At 70 years-old, she is happily single, and always has been. She’s spent her career researching, writing and speaking on the single experience, in an effort to dismantle the conventional wisdom that a happy, fulfilled life, means a coupled-up one.

Matthew speaks to Yale sociologist and PhD candidate Hannah Tessler about her research into the complex, expansive relationship networks of single people.

We also hear from David Bather Wood, an Assistant Professor from the University Warwick, who explains how a philosophical parable about porcupines, dating back to the 1830s, influenced contemporary understandings of the choice to live a single life.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Leona Hameed
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
Theme Music: Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4