Valentine’s Day was not romantic - but the world seems full of love right now | Emma Beddington

After a year of enforced proximity, romance is in deep hibernation for many couples. But love is everywhere, expressed in quiet acts of kindness

Valentine's Day passed untroubled by grand romantic gestures: he regrouted the shower, I picked my cuticles. Dinner was leftovers in front of sitcom reruns with the kids.

Some aspects of Covid life are fascinating, like a deeply unethical mass psychology experiment. The impact on romantic relationships is one of them: have partners ever experienced so much unsolicited togetherness? What effect will it have? Pandemic years are dog years, with new couples feeling the seven-year itch and old lags plumbing fresh depths of taking each other for granted.