Love Stories

Image by Josch13 from Pixabay

Last Sunday at church, a friend asked me how I planned to celebrate St Valentine’s Day. I sighed, winced, laughed and said – as nicely as I could – “Don’t ever ask a single person about Valentine’s Day.” This person is someone I greatly like and respect, and I knew they hadn’t intended any offence, it was just a light-hearted comment. All the same, let the message land: I am delighted to ignore St Valentine’s Day every year.

Except at church, where we emphasise that St Valentine’s is really about celebrating God’s love for each one of us, whatever our marital or non-marital status is. St Valentine was a martyr: there was nothing fluffy about him.

Which leads me onto the recent hype about the Greatest Love Story Ever Told (not), the new film of Wuthering Heights directed by Emerald Fennell, starring Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. I have no intention of seeing it, or at least I don’t intend to pay to see it. That’s because I respect Emily Brontë’s darkly brilliant, disturbing novel. Wuthering Heights shocked people when it was first published in 1847, and it’s still shocking. Heathcliff, who was horribly abused as a child, grows up to be a horrible abuser himself. Cathy is wilful and selfish and together they make a thoroughly toxic couple, wreaking destruction on each other and everyone else within their orbit. This is a story about love being twisted and abused and gone deeply wrong. Love is meant to heal people, not hurt them. This is not a romantic story but a deeply sad and haunting one.

Please don’t think that I dislike love stories. My favourite book, The Lord of the Rings, features one of my favourite romances (Faramir and Éowyn). One of my favourite biblical books is the Song of Songs, which first and foremost is a beautiful celebration of human sexuality and romance, as well as a powerful, even unsettling, metaphor of God’s love for Israel, and Christ’s love for the Church. The Song of Songs is both erotic and pure.

So how do you tackle love and romance in your writing, if that’s where your preferences lie? (Do any brave ACW men include romantic relationships in their writing? It’s so often seen as a purely feminine genre).

We’re all Christian writers here. For those of you who tackle sexuality in your writing, what’s your approach?

What writers and poets – Christian and secular – have inspired your writing when it comes to love and matters of the heart?

I work for the Diocese of Rochester, where I am also a Reader. I wrote a devotional for the anthology Light for the Writer’s Soul, published by Media Associates International, and my short story ‘Magnificat’ appears in the ACW anthology Merry Christmas Everyone.