Modern Love

'In Modern Love, Marcus Collins sets out to survey the changing expectations men and women have brought to their relationships with one another.' -- Damian Thompson, Daily Telegraph

Drawing on social, economic and political history, Modern Love explains for the first time at book length how relations changed between men and women in Britain in the twentieth century. Marcus Collins shows how men and women's expectations from life radically shifted and converged, describing how we moved from inhabiting our separate spheres with wholly different prospects and values towards the ideal, if not quite the actuality, of equality, mutuality, companionship and friendship.

'Enlightening... Collins charts the progress of a radical turn-of-the-century idea that men and women could achieve joyful intimacy if only they got to know one another as equals ... he elegantly demonstrates the power of public perception in determining whether or not we manage to be happy in love.' --Decca Aitkenhead, New Statesman

'From the Victorians to Bridget Jones, it's a miracle women actually have relationships... Marcus Collins gets back to basics and allows us to hear the voices of ordinary women and men for ourselves'.--Rachel Cooke, Observer

'Rather a well-mannered history of those who have sought to make marriage a better thing. The questions he raises... are just as compelling today as they were a century ago.'--Lesley White, Sunday Times