Valentine’s Day is finally upon us, there is no escape. We all just have to make the most of it. Whether you’re in love, that state of blissful self-delusion, or in a long term relationship, that state of blunt, monotonous reality, you will have to do something for your partner. Those in the violent throes [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, Romance | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways | Leave a Comment »
(RATED PG – Parental Guidance Recommended.) Valentine’s Day in the Suburbs – Private Love Walking suburban streets alone at night can be unnerving. Not just because they can be dark, not just because they are often deserted, but because we come indecently close to the private world of our neighbours. It can be quite disturbing. [...]
Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Non Fiction | Tagged: Anais Nin, Catherine Millet, Claire Halliday, Kate Holden, Krissy Kneen, Let Me Count the Ways, Merridy Eastman, Pauline Reage, Stephanie Clifford-Smith | Leave a Comment »
There is a moment in the film Love Actually when the old rocker, Billy Mack, played by Bill Nighy, realises that the greatest love of his life is his manager, Joe. And he tells him so. This is a surprising admission, it surprises Joe, but it is also a wonderfully perceptive admission, because Billy Mack, [...]
Filed under: Children's Fiction, Fiction, Literature, Young Adult | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways, Lord of The Rings, Love, Noddy | Leave a Comment »
On Valentine’s Day we can celebrate love, but there will always those who use the day to remember those they once loved but now revile. When I Loved You When I loved you, I can’t but allow I had many an exquisite minute; But the scorn that I feel for you now Hath even more [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways, Thomas Moore | Leave a Comment »
‘Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated. Perhaps the love is occasionally on the man’s side; perhaps on the lady’s. Perhaps some infatuated swain has ere this mistaken insensibility for modesty, dulness for maiden reserve, mere [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways, Thackeray, Vanity Fair | 1 Comment »
I am no Romeo. I haven’t the courage to live by my heart’s direction, I haven’t the self-confidence to assume my love will be accepted, that I will be desired in return… Each of my actions is measured. I live by committee, a committee dominated by the anti-me league. I express a desire and they [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Gift Books, Literature, Movies, Non Fiction, Romance | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways, Love, Relationships, Romeo and Juliet, Sel-Help | Leave a Comment »
MODERN LOVE by George Meredith I By this he knew she wept with waking eyes: That, at his hand’s light quiver by her head, The strange low sobs that shook their common bed Were called into her with a sharp surprise, And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes, Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay Stone-still, [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature | Tagged: George Meredith, Let Me Count the Ways | Leave a Comment »
Singles! The darkest day in the calender is nearly upon you. Valentine’s Day! The day when you are forced to look into the dusty heart of your singledom, the day when that brave smile will not come, when all your claims of happiness are exposed as lies, the day when Valentine cards from well meaning [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, Romance, Uncategorized | Tagged: Great Expectations, Let Me Count the Ways, Love in the Time of Cholera, Mansfield Park, Strait is the Gate | Leave a Comment »
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching… What to do, what to say? Love is so complex! In this age of Twitter, texting and ‘time poverty’ our capacity to communicate complicated feelings is in dangerous decline. Sure, we can speak in short imbecilic bursts - we can rant, we can reiterate, repeat and Retweet – but can [...]
Filed under: Fantasy, Fiction, Gift Books, Literature, Romance | Tagged: Let Me Count the Ways | 2 Comments »
