'She won't stop writing to me - emails, letters, text-messages, cards. But it's not merely because I hardly know her that I no longer reply. It is the increasingly demanding tone - and the fact that a romance is gaining momentum without my needing to be involved. Sometimes her complaints seem to be so plausible that I wonder whether I am the one to blame. At others, it is the pure flame of her hatred that mesmerises me - and it is then that I begin to feel truly afraid.'
Gregory Dart was teaching at London University when he became the victim of a young woman's obsession. 'Unrequited Love' is his account of that disturbing episode, when even to pick up the phone was fraught with menace. It is also a quest to understand the new rules of romance. Since when did dating become such a dangerous pursuit?