Love is the cruellest month

Like spies, we are plunged into the lives of famous couples from history, mythology, literature, cinema and the news. And however well we think we know them, there are always surprises. What do we not know about the daring and extravagant Madame du Barry, the talented Madame de Pompadour, the disagreeable Scarlett O’Hara or Charles and Camilla? Or about the love of Marcel Proust for his governess Céleste Albaret, and the passion of Abelard and Heloise as told by her uncle Fulbert? Titbits that escaped historians and gossipmongers alike, and the inadmissible facts of a love affair. At times the biographies are complete, at others we are offered no more than a fleeting insight. Long passages or brief incursions into lovers’ beds, bogus motives and intrigue.