I claim there ain't another saint as great as Valentine.

Ogden Nash.

I don't know...I rather like St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. I pray to him quite a lot.

Here he is, looking a little like a poster boy for British Gas:

(The flame, I discovered, is to symbolise his presence at Pentecost)

Valentine's Day is pain free for me, in my thirty sixth year of marriage. The fact that Peter forgot about it and I didn't doesn't mean anything at all, except he'll be extra nice to me all day out of guilt!

I do remember the horrible peer pressure and angst in my teenage years - I simply didn't have a boyfriend until I went to university. It was painful in the way that only adolescent pain can be.

One time, I sent two Valentine's cards and disguised my writing. The only trouble was, I disguised the writing identically on both and the recipients compared notes and worked out it was me. The taunts. The humiliation. (You know who you are, Martin Oliver and Neil Scott-Evans - except you probably don't.)

So, here are some cheering Puritan Valentine's Cards to make you smile.

Or not...

Happy Valentine's Day!