Who was the first fictional character you fell in love with?

Foxinsox, I think you're talking about Cold Comfort Farm.

My first love was Dick in Famous Five.

Charles I think it was who married Trudy/Trixie? the vet

Jonathan Warrender was a bit of a geek wasnt he

I quite like Peters cousin? The younger one from white gates.

it would have to be Aragorn i think.

Aaaw I loved the Wells book. Very muc agree about the characters being believable. Totally loved them and have been trying to get hold of copies for a couple of years now. Would definitely love to revisit.

I've just been and checked, and the chap from the Lone Pine series was David Morton - though I was reminded of Jonathan Warrender, who was quite fanciable too.

I think my first was one of the older boys from the Lone Pine series - not Tom, who married Jenny in the end, but the one who married Peta - I can't remember his name and all my Lone Pine books are still in storeage.

Apart from him, I'm joining the many who've said Gilbert Blythe, Dr Bill Barry, Lord Peter Wimsey, Aragorn, and to a certain extent, Jack Maynard from the Chalet school series, though I'm not sure I could have coped with having 11 children by him - I'd have banished him to the spare room after the triplets, I think! Even now, though, I do fantasise about marrying one of the doctors from the Sanatorium and becoming part of the life of the Chalet school - and friends with Jo, of course.

God, that's weird. I read that and thought 'I can't even remember what the Flambards theme was' and to my surprise and not a little mortification it popped straight into my head. I'm embarrassed to say I think I even bought the record. Now need to slink away and die quietly under a bush somewhere.

janeite, love your staffroom story! Take comfort - a friend of mine did something similar years ago, only she was talking about (whispers) 'vaginal examinations'. Except she didn't whisper and the whole room was suddenly quiet.

I do think the Wells books stand revisiting - far more say than the Chalet School or something. They were good characters. And there was realism in them, I remember Veronica in her lodgings at Mrs Crapper's, getting the tube home etc. All quite humdrum and believable amid the dancing.

I can even hum the Flambards theme tune - actually I am humming it.

Thanks to this thread I am going to have to re-read Flambards and neglect my children and the housework further. I only read them once in my early teens but recently found them in a charity shop.

The L. M. Montgomery 'Emily' books had the hero Ted (?) - dark-haired artistic type who was definitely desirable, but also a much older Byronic sub-love interest called Dean - I definitely find him more interesting now ...

I embarrassed myself in the staffroom today. I was talking to a colleague about how much I'd enjoyed the first one and then said "I suspect the rest of the series will be all about which one she actually shags first" and then realised that the whole room had gone silent.

Masterful bastard Mark, sensitive crippled Will, forelock-tugging stable boy Dick. She had 'em all. Great stuff!

The Wells books are fab. Haven't read them for years so don't know whether they stand up to adult rereading, but am definitely going to get them for dd once she's old enough.

Charitygirl - they're on amazon but all seem to be secondhand. Am similarly grief-stricken as I'm sure my mum has thrown all my treasured copies away ... how do these things happen? Still, if your dd is yet to be conceived you've got time to trawl old bookstalls!

I'm going to have to find out about these Wells books - I was a ballet-mad kid but these seem to have passed me by - had to make do with endless re-reads of Ballet Shoes!

I think Gilbert Blythe is in the lead so far for most-fallen-in-love-with fictional male

Gilbert Blthye. SWOON. Always thought Sebastian was a bit of a git, but there was so much chemistry between him and Veronica [dork emoticon]

In the 'Emily' books, (also LM Mongtomery) I quite fancied the bloke in that, but can;t remember a thing about them.

And thanks for the Flambards reminder - those books were incredibly sexually charged weren't they. Considering they were for young adults.

I am now getting antsy about the fact that my dad has certainly thrown all my books away and they're prob out of print and WHAT WILL MY POOR DD (as yet unconceived) READ???How will she know how to do an identity swap to audition for the Wells?

CJCregg - I think a thank-goodness-that-one-passed-me-by emoticon would be more suitable - it was a pretty dreadful (and interminable) American series of books about 2 high school girls and their floppy-haired boyfriends who always had lop-sided grins for some reason.

As a hormonal 13-year-old I loved them but I doubt very much they'd stand up to a re-visit after all this time - unlike some of the classics already mentioned on this thread.

Thanks, Marmite! I have a nasty feeling I'm going to have to revisit the books, now.

Sweet Valley High ... where is the emoticon for something swooping right over someone's head?!

Don't remember Jeffery French - what sticks in my mind most is the description of the sickening blonde twins with their dazzling blue eyes and their gold lavaliere (whatever the hell that is) necklaces that started every single book

My friend bought every one as they came out and it would get passed round our whole group of friends. We'd then spend the rest of the month dyyyying for the next one to come out (in typical 13-year-old girl fashion)

Aniyan - oh my gosh can't believe there is a fellow MNtter out there who read Sweet Vally High. hehehe
Thought Jeffery French was a bit of an alrighter...

Swirling is when you take a popular song and mix it around a bit, like a cake, and some bits stick and some bits don't.

I've always remembered the cake simile for some reason!

Right, now I've read those books (back in the shrouded mists of time) but cannot for the life of me remember wtf swirling was. Could someone please enlighten me?

janeite, you have to get past Dick somehow. Sometimes people are given names for a reason, see?

I do so love this thread.

Oh that was it - Robin... yes, I think he may have been quite young. It was only a minor crush after all!
But Dill. Well, Dill smoked his own home-made fags made out of string. That pretty much did it for me (am over it now of course) .

Robin's friend was called Nigel.