Show Notes: "Your online dating profile is the latest spin on a 300-year-old tradition of advertising yourself in order to find a spouse, a sexual partner, or someone to take care of your pigs. Francesca Beauman, author of Shapely Ankle Preferr’d: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad, digs into lonely hearts ads to see how British society and desires have evolved over the past three centuries. WARNING: Some of the content is a little saucy, but not, like, swimming in sauce. READING MATTER: - Reviews of hundreds of different dating sites? You got it --> http://www.leadingdatingsites.co... - I love reading the Blind Dates (http://www.theguardian.com/lifea...) in the Guardian each Saturday, and The Guyliner’s dissection thereof shortly afterwards (http://impeccabletablemanners.th...) - Atlas Obscura tests the Victorian seduction technique of reading aloud --> http://www.atlasobscura.com/arti... - Not so much a lonely heart ad as a curious soul ad, but it resulted in one of the most intriguing books I’ve ever read: The Life Swap by Nancy Weber (https://books.google.co.uk/books...). Read about it here --> http://www.theguardian.com/lifea... (NB spoilers). - Warlock: offensive term? --> http://www.theallusionist.org/tr..."