There is no gift more intimate than jewellery, and none more difficult for a man to choose - not even lingerie. A gift of lingerie requires only the desire to be intimate with the woman it's bought for.
It is, however, much easier for a man to walk into a jeweller's than a lingerie shop. Yet choosing an exquisite jewel or a handmade watch for your loved one requires a different kind of intimacy: the intimacy of insight into another person's soul.
For whatever adornment you select to give in love, and however beautifully crafted it may be, your thoughts when you buy it must be of your beloved's tastes and personality, not your own. And this, for at least half of all humankind, is a daunting prospect indeed.
Women rarely worry about what Christmas present to buy their spouse. If they do, they probably don't need to, since a man's definition of good taste is very simple: good taste is whatever your partner buys for you. Equally uncomplicated is the opposite: bad taste is whatever you still own that was given to you by your ex.
For men, however, the prospect of choosing from among thousands of designs and finding just one perfect object that is not only beautiful and elegant, but also possessed of an intangible essence that both complements and compliments the person for whom it is uniquely intended, can be terrifying.
How, the man feels perfectly entitled to ask himself, can I fail to get this wrong?
