Washington Post, 25/04/2005
Red blog diaries
A character on the old TV show « Fawlty Towers » once noted that « Great English Lovers » must be one of the titles in the library of the world’s shortest books. Lewis Wingrove, 44, is trying to change that notion. Wingrove, who was born in England to a French mother, lives in Lyon, France, where he blogs about his exploits and reports on what the Times of London calls the « predatory habits of Frenchwomen. »
« Bloggers the world over chronicle their love lives and 10 million French, mostly women, date via the Internet. Mr Wingrove, a self-confessed geek, has become a phenomenon because of his precise, deadpan style. Elle magazine described him as ‘more sly than vulgar.’ Libération called him ‘the most famous shagger on the web.’ ‘The writing is lively, the tone is naughty but never too vulgar as he savours every date all the way from the bistro to bed,’ » the Times reported. Wingrove « is negotiating a book on his ‘unforgettable socio-erotic experiment’, a chronicle of romance via Meetic, a dating site. His cold detail of 21st-century courtship, much unprintable in a newspaper, reads like a blend of Mr. Pooter’s diary, Bridget Jones and Brett Easton Ellis. »
The Times also reported that he reprints the pick-up chats he had with more than two dozen women, all of whom, by the way, he rates on a number of physical attributes as well as « charm/charisma, » « wit/complicity » and « tenderness/feeling. » According to Wingrove himself, « When you are managing 25 relationships at the same time, it is the only way to remember that Véronique’s son plays tennis and that Marie has a diesel car… It may look brutal to rate and categorise the opposite sex, but everyone really does that when they go out on a date. »
The site is not available in English, so you’ll have to use a machine translator or a compliant Francophone to translate his copious entries. For anyone who does this, be forewarned, his tales are definitely rated « R. »
Howard Dean, Part II
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