Like millions of young women today there was a time when I was convinced that there was nothing a man could do that I couldn't do better.
I even had a framed cartoon of Irina Dunn's famous feminist phrase, 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle', hanging on my study wall.
I might still hold such sexist views if, for the first time in 30 years, I hadn't had to face the reality of living without a man.