They Call Me Naughty Lola: The London Review of Books Personal Ads: A Reader [Paperback]

"The weird and wonderful have found their true home" Independent "Half-Hustler, half Times crossword puzzle" John Sutherland "It's where Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre would have advertised" Guardian"

'It is a delicious read, stuffed with comically self-deprecating
and very British encapsulations of personality'

"A foolproof guide to attracting the right kind of attention"

"Winning, charming, laugh-out-loud"

"The most hilariously honest lonely hearts ads...cringeingly
embarrassing"

"A quirky, erudite and addictively readable collection of lonely
hearts ads - you'll love [it]."

'The sauciest stocking-filler and best loo book I've ever
read...Everybody's got to buy it.'

'The definitive text on the human condition'

'They call me naughty Lola. Run-of-the-mill beardy physicist (M, 46).' 'My ideal woman is a man. Sorry, mother.' "Disaffiliated flaneur, jacked-up on Viagra and on the look-out for a contortionist trumpeter" ran the first personal ad submitted to the London Review of Books. The quality has remained the same ever since, and it is now the world's funniest - and most erudite - lonely hearts column. Expectations of finding a suitable mate remain low, but it has produced a handful of marriages, many friendships and at least one divorce. Here the fruitiest of the ads are brought together for the first time. 'List your ten favourite albums...I just want to know if there's anything worth keeping when we finally break up. Practical, forward thinking man, 35.'

David Rose is the advertising director of the London Review of Books; the personal ads were his brainchild, and were first published in 1998. He has never been tempted to respond to any of the ads. He is married, and lives in Liverpool.