Love is love
Some of my favourite love stories - and some not-just-for-two tokens of affection
I am not terribly keen on red roses and set meals for two (heck, who can afford to go to a restaurant these days, let alone at Valentine’s prices?), but I do very much like a spot of love and escapism. And I don’t think you need to limit yourself to romantic escapades and declarations Love is, after all, love. And in a world where cruelty, madness and indifference (and difference) seems to proliferate, love is very welcome indeed. So herewith some ideas for romantic-but-also-not tokens of affections and a generous handful of some of my favourite love stories.
(The first part of this post is free for all to read, the second is behind the paywall because paid subscribers deserve this token of my grateful affection!)
My daughter delighted me by requesting that we go to Flowers: Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture - every iteration of flora, including a whole room installation at the Saatchi Gallery. Sharing the experience of an art exhibition with someone you like very much is a delight - they always see things you do not.
There is something intrinsically happy and hopeful about seeds - is it the promise of growth and beauty from a tiny start? These from Alma Proust are exquisitely packaged. I think if you paired seeds with gardening queen Jo Thompson’s exquisite book, The New Romantic Garden it would be the perfect gesture of affection. I dream of Jo making over my tiny garden and magicking it into a thing of wonder and beauty. You could pre-order it now and give a gift subscription to her Substack in the interim.
Am I permitted to say that I find the gift of warmth and cosiness fittingly romantic? A beautiful hot water bottle cover says, ‘I love you, stay toasty’.
My appetite is a strange thing: it waxes and wanes. I can forget to eat lunch but also absentmindedly consume five digestives in a row. (I had lunch with Jennie Godfrey- she of the deservedly bestselling The List of Suspicious Things and Florence Knapp the other week and they both assured me that this is perfectly acceptable - you only need to worry when you eat a whole packet. Incidentally, Florence’s debut novel The Names is WONDERFUL and will be one of the best books you read this year, even though it is terribly sad in places, but it follows a redemption arc - because love, it transpires, is stronger than cruelty.) Despite my varying appetite, I could probably consume a chocolate lobster in its entirety, and I think cheese is always a (pungent) love token.
(If ever a paragraph ranged wildly, it was that one.)
As a token of my love for you, I have assembled some of my favourite love stories - in found one often led to the next. Obviously, this is not a finite list.
A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
When I first read this, I was in my early teens and thought it was swooningly romantic. Oh, to be kissed in a field of poppies above Florence by a handsome and impetuous young man. But upon re-reading it as an adult, I realised what an excellent comedy it is - a novel in which the supporting cast is so entertaining they are a distraction to the main event. Miss Lavish! The odious prig Cecil Vyse who looks “like a gothic statue”! Charlotte - the eternal martyr with her obsession with propriety and hidden sentimentality. It’s a clever romance of oppositions: city v. countryside and its attendant assumptions of cosmopolitan v. gauche, Baedeker v. seeing with the heart, class snobbery v. individual worth; and - of course - practicality v. love. For “love…is the most real thing that we shall ever meet”.
You Are Here - David Nicholls
This leads me nicely to Wednesday evening, when I listened to David Nicholls talk about how this is his attempt at writing “a Forsterian novel”. Nicholls is a Forster fan - has been since he first encountered him at O level via A Passage to India, although he rightly advises starting with A Room With a View “and then reading the rest”. He has written the introduction for a new, beautifully-bound edition of Howard’s End which is not yet published, but this would make a beautiful gift for your Valentine, should you be so inclined.
Forster, said Nicholls, is “the great author of connection”. The same could be said about Nicholls…
The rest of this post is for paid subscribers. Enjoy - and thank you, thank you for subscribing and supporting my work. It means the world: I genuinely could not do it without you: it allows me to devote the time I do to this newsletter. (Still only £5 a month!)