to wonder if period dramas have ruined real men for me?

[olivebee]

I grew up on a diet of period dramas. Pride and Prejudice, Wives and Daughters, North and South, Emma, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Tenant of Wildfell Hall - the works. I loved them, watched them over and over again. Read all the books until the pages fell out. I fell in love with the morally courageous, dynamic, flawed men who leapt off their pages.

I have just come back from a date with a bloke who told me repeatedly and at length about being chased by a grizzly bear whilst on holiday.

He then informed me that his cat wakes him in the morning by licking his nipples.

Clearly, he isn't the one. I get that real men cannot live up to literature. I am not looking for perfection, but I would like someone who is just a teensy weensy bit like John Thornton. AIBU?

dementedma you forgot the lazy drawl.

That is so true, Branching.

Maud - skip the endless pages of Jewish theology and focus on Gwendolen and her horrid abusive marriage. There is some really powerful writing and characterisation.

You need to grasp the difference between fantasy and reality.

In the same way that the widespread availability of porn has given people unrealistic expectations of how quickly a plumber will come round.

YANBU - I was the same. None of the men in period dramas seem like they were up for a laugh though?

I did like Gilbert Markham though. Or maybe it was the actor that played him!

lol at Piglet John's plumbing plumber. Are you hinting that none of Georgette Heyer's heros would be able to sort out a dodgy radiator when it matters?

Agree branching. I loved Gwendolen