Top Five Valentines reads for…
The sexually frustrated teenager: Love Lessons by Jacqueline Wilson
Almost every girl of our generation will remember this shocking but thrilling tale of a girl who falls in love with her art teacher. Love Lessons is like Twilight but without the irritating characters, squealing Fangirls, and undertones of paedophilia. Actually, it’s nothing like Twilight: it’s innocent, moral, educational and contains sexy, sexy Mr Raxberry.
Those who are weeping alone: A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
An incredibly touching, heartbreaking, and hilarious account of a day in the life of George, an Englishman living and teaching in Southern California. George is a gay man in the sixties, he’s middle-aged and living alone, his younger partner Jim having died in a car crash. A Single Man is a fantastic novel which provides and little perspective for those moping about not having a date on Valentine’s Day.
The uninhibited, clever couple: Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Oh everyone thinks they know the kinky tale of Lady Chatterley and Mellors the groundskeeper, but aside from all the shagging in cabins and tying flowers in each other’s pubic hair, this is actually a fantastic read. Full of class conflict and sexual politics, you can enjoy the marvellous sexy bits without the guilt of reading some trashy chick-lit. There’s even some old-school bumming, brilliant.
Anyone with a heart: Atonement by Ian McEwan
I could go on about how this book breaks one’s heart, how it conjures the pain and trauma of war, how it brings into question the very validity of spectatorship and narration in an original and inspiring way, or I could be honest and confess that the thing everyone remembers about this book is just that incredible sex scene in the library. Read it and flock, one and all, to the Brotherton and find yourself a new friend.
The couple who still have it: Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Part-warning against the damage caused by obsessive love, part-tale of lovers who find each other again after over fifty years of separation, this novel addresses the little-broached subject of sex over sixty. Most people stick with the line that it is the greatest love story ever told, ignoring the protagonist’s prolific adultery and affair with a fourteen year-old girl. Whatever: it’s old people shagging. Adorable.
Words: Jennie Pritchard