The Red, Red Rose

Since kindly Aphrodite spilt blood upon a white rose to aid her wounded lover, Adonis, a red rose has symbolised love everlasting – or a passing passion if it’s simply a flower and not a symbol of the life blood you would give to save a beloved. Biblically, it is a symbol of shame, of [...]

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Romancing Traditions

The card is bought, the flowers arranged, the champagne on ice, the restaurant is booked, the jewellery glitters, the perfume is sweet, and the chocolates so pretty in their heart-shaped gold-wrapped box.  You’ve done it: every tradition fulfilled, every symbol of a romance that time will not fade, and every token of love everlasting is [...]

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Mythical Love

Mythical tales of love are many – countless, perhaps – and have a tendency towards the melodramatic at best and the tragic at worst.  In an attempt to remain in keeping with the celebration of love that is St Valentine’s Day, I searched the scores of mythological lovers for a happy tale.  The best I [...]

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Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

May Sinclair is in danger of being lost under a mountain of critical essays; smothered by scholars of literature and psychoanalysis alike, apparently determined to claim her as one of their own; and dissected by biographers until every word on the page is weighted with biographical reference, no matter how tenuous.  Her fate is partly [...]

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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca has been many things to many people.  To the reading public, it is a gothic romance and ferocious tale of jealousy, betrayal, and suspense.  To academics it is ripe with Freudian subtext – the younger second wife (daughter) longing for the affections of her husband (father), but envious of and intimidated by the first [...]

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