Romantic Novelists vote Richard Armitage Sexiest Thing On Two Legs

British actor Richard Armitage has leapt from last year's 4th place to this year topping the ratings in the Romantic Novelists' Association 2009 Valentine's poll, to take the title of Sexiest Thing on Two Legs, beating top Hollywood stars to the number one spot.

Johnny Depp, who topped last year's poll, was pushed firmly into second place, with Hugh Jackman and George Clooney mere also-rans. Richard Armitage took 20% of the vote, more than double the count of any other male on the list, said the RNA pollster. He was a clear winner from the off.

The RNA is not alone in admiration of the actor, as numerous online Richard Armitage fan sites will testify. The ardency began with North and South, grew by leaps and bounds with the leather-clad baddie in Robin Hood, and shows no sign of diminishing as Spooks takes to the airwaves.

It's a coup for Britain, said one starstruck writer, not just for sexy Richard.

According to romantic novelists, the sexiest male celebrities of 2009 are:

1 Richard Armitage

2 Johnny Depp

3 Hugh Jackman

4 George Clooney

5 Daniel Craig

6 Sean Bean

7 Alan Rickman

8 David Tennant

9 Pierce Brosnan

10 Gerard Butler

And for those of you who have never heard of or seen Richard Armitage check him out on You Tube

SURFING...


Surfing the net for a really great photograph of Richard Armitage who, unbeknownst to him, was cast as Jago, the hero Wedded in a Whirlwind, I came aross this fansite which announced at RA is joining the cast of Spooks for series 7.

Hot hero of North and South, anti-hero from Robin Hood in my favourite series.

Oh, be still my beating heart...

Oh, and the second book in the BRIDES FOR ALL SEASONS is out now. Fiona Harper has been blogging about inspiration and setting -- check it out here

PIN UPS, HEROES AND ITALY

One of my loops is attempting to compile a list of the fifty most fanciable men. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't recognise a lot of the names, but the serious drooling that was going on over Richard Armitage sent me to his web page hoping that he might just might prove a lookalike for the hero-in-progress.

He's not a match but I thought I'd post a photograph anyway. Just for you. :)



MORE ITALY

This gate is four thousand years old. It was on the dh's "most want to see" list but he wasn't sure where it was, then on a trip to Castell del Cyclope he turned around and there it was. Magic.

That's him looking v. small beneath it. And the walls, glimpsed behind, were all constructed of blocks of stone that size. Four thousand years ago. On the top of a mountain. Amazing.


This is the view from the castle. That's Arpino on the hilltop below -- we went there last year and thought that was pretty high up. It's where Marius and Cicero were born (and Cicero was murdered for those of you who watched "Rome").









And these are some olives in situ on the tree.


Travelling on the train from Rome to Bari we saw millions of olive trees. And thousands of buffalo, too. And both the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. It took five hours but I really enjoyed it. I'd have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd had a decent book.

This one offers a master-class in how not to write dialogue -- even Victorian dialogue.





AND THANK YOU

Finally a huge thank you to everyone who commented on the branding issue. I was overwhelmed by the wonderful things that you all said -- to be compared to chocolate, words fail me. Or maybe not.

"Liz Fielding -- surprisingly better than chocolate..."

It's not exactly snappy is it? I begin to see why they pay experts six figure sums to come up with this kind of slogan.