The Edition is celebrating diversity this Valentine’s day, but the custom already has a diverse history. Two millennia ago, the Christian priest Valentinus was martyred after staging secret marriages. Chaucer shows us that Valentyne’s, in the Middle Ages, was more about when the birds and bees and ‘every foul … cometh … to choose his mate’. Up until the middle Twentieth Century, wintry Valentine’s Day was celebrated by English school children playing hookie for sweets and hot pennies. In the Twenty-first Century, it’s about love for an other -- or even others -- but perhaps Oscar Wilde had it right when he insisted, ‘To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance’. Time to treat yourself to some fine chocolates and kick back on the sofa … along with that book you bought yourself here, naturally.