Swarmed by the never-ending Instagram posts, decadent bouquets and heart-shaped chocolate, Valentine’s Day marks the day of celebrating your loved ones with gestures that reflect how much that special person means to you. But what is the ultimate gesture?

Arguably, putting pen to paper is the most archaic way to express one’s affection. Thinking back to how our grandparents and great grandparents stayed connected, the only form of communication was via letters. This doesn’t mean that you have to be a professional writer to send a letter, but allowing the power of the written word to permeate your feelings about a person truly captures the essence of what Valentine’s Day is all about.

Award-winning national biographer, StoryTerrace, have had the privilege of gaining insight into some of the most romantic love stories, by helping couples from 30 to 80-years-old find the words to convey their experiences. In their nationally representative research, the memoir-writing service have examined a nation unified by love as over half of Brits claim to believe in ‘the one’. A heart-warming 25% also feel that their love story could be translated into a book or a film demonstrating the power of their love, and how they feel this could impact or inspire others.

Key stats:

25% of Brits believe their love story could be made into a book or film
47% of Brits agree that their parents’ generation has far more romantic love stories than their generation
Over half of all Brits 56% believe in ‘the one’
26% of Brits feel that they let their one true love go
17% of people are jealous of their parents’ generation and their relationships
44% of all Brits have been in love without acting on it
36% of Brits are currently in love

Rutger Bruining, CEO of leading biographer StoryTerrace, discusses the central theme of love and relationships to stories written:

“Many people across the world would argue that the love story is the greatest genre of them all. While this is certainly reflected in the sheer amount of love stories which dominate mass media, this also remains true for a lot of people who write their own biographies. When people start the process of documenting their life stories with us, what often takes precedent in their narratives are the relationships they form with people across the timeline of their life.

There isn’t much that the pandemic has not impacted, and we at StoryTerrace were able to witness this first-hand. There was a significant spike during lockdown in the number people who decided to start the process of documenting their life story, and although there were of course many downsides, it was nonetheless pleasing to see how much people started to appreciate their relationships with their loved ones even more due to the difficult circumstances we found ourselves in.”