Such is the struggle and strife of the lover, it’s hard to disagree with Katharine Hepburn’s droll analysis of relationships: “Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.”
 
In this special Valentine’s Day issue of Litro, we offer tales of Twisted Romance that would make Jane Austen blush and get Chaucer all hot under the collar. Both Chrissie Gittins‘ and Kathryn Lane‘s stories tell of forbidden love; desire contained and limited by the pressures of professional duty (their narrators a social worker and a teacher respectively). Matthew Licht, a regular Litro contributor, reports on a relationship with quite an age gap in ‘Me & My “Aunt” Doris’, and in Trilby Kent‘s ‘A Fine Woman’, a loyal widower carries out his late wife’s wishes – but perhaps wishes he hadn’t…
  
East End Casanova Tim Wells provides quirky but tender takes on love and romance, whilst Maggie Veness adds a touch of erotic cynicism to proceedings.