HOW can I persuade my best pal to stop talking?

She’s nearly 30. She’s lonely and desperate to be loved. But she can’t keep a boyfriend and I think it is because she talks out of nervousness.

She brings out some lovely blokes, but she waffles on so incessantly that they get bored and move on.

I once tried to discuss this matter with her but she brushed me aside, saying guys love chatty, bubbly women; no-one likes an awkward silence.

But there’s a difference between a lull in a conversation and a wall of sound, isn’t there?

Besides, I can’t believe a guy has ever got a word in edgeways with her.

I have seen so many glaze over in her company that I’m beginning to think that unless she faces up to her verbal diarrhoea she’ll be alone forever – and, if I’m honest, I don’t want that burden.

JANE SAYS: Why don’t you have one more try?

Take your friend out for a coffee and simply lay it on the line. Tell her that you’re speaking out because you care and only have her best interests at heart.

Discuss the nature of conversation, explain how it involves an exchange of news and views, and requires chatting and listening. Make it clear people don’t like to be talked “at” or bombarded with information.

If she gets nervous, are there coping strategies that you and she could practise in front of a mirror? How would she like to be constantly bored to death or not listened to?

After that, you must leave her to work things out for herself and learn from her own mistakes.

You cannot allow her to drag you down.