Did you know that last Friday was National Kissing Day? Can’t say I noticed anyone getting any more action than usual, but then half the population probably had their heads buried in a certain book or three. In belated honour of this osculatory event (someone’s been at the thesaurus), dab on a bit of Vaseline, pop in a mint and pucker up for a short list of my favourite kisses in literature…

1. If you google ‘great kisses of literature’ there seems to be a much-recycled list, at the top of which sits Romeo and Juliet. I’m going to be controversial then and argue that the antics of these two love-sick teenagers never ranked very highly with me. Rather, I think Shakespeare was on his best form with the culmination of the fantastic will-they-won’t-they banter of Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. After all, the indication of a back-story between these two, the idea that they had loved, lost and found love again strikes me as far more compelling. Maybe I don’t really have a romantic soul as R&J’s (n.b. not Richard & Judy’s) love at first sight just doesn’t wash with me.

2. Do you want the earth to move and the heavens to shake during a literary snog? Then let me remind you of Jane Eyre. Granted, Mr Rochester is a potential bigamist, but his mojo is so potent he conjures up lightning strikes. Need we say more?

3. I’m getting into my controversial stride now, so beware, I’m going to add a non-kiss to the list. Going against the current ‘grey’ rage with all it’s *ahem* detail, I’m going to stake a claim for an author who’s reticence on the subject of smooching marks her out: Jane Austen, of course. In my favourite of her books, the proposal scene between Emma and Mr Knightly where their cross-purposes are resolved and the page is littered with dashes – literally – of agitation, has to be a supreme example of less is more. Which of course applies to love scenes as well as tongue.

So, that’s a very short and very classics-centric list, what would you suggest?

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager