When Mick takes Winnie to The Bull and Dun tavern and she ends up dancing on the tables while the customers shout approval of her beautiful long legs, I laughed out loud. The Proposition is full of wonderful scenes. He and Winnie have lots of fun, especially when he gets in the rude with his widge hanging out. In real life love can be playful and fun and full of laughter and that is how Mick approaches it. So often, lovemaking is presented as a deadly serious thing full of storm, stress and sweat. When Mick and Winnie make love, it is in a scene filled with joy. This is one of the lightest and happiest books I have read this year, yet neither is it fluffy or mindless. But the sexual tension is not dark or sinister. It’s there from the beginning and just keeps building and building. The Proposition is a textbook example of how to generate sexual tension. Mick proves himself to be smart as a whip, easily able to mimic proper speech and behavior, and takes on the role of gentleman with total ease and assurance. He is tall and handsome and loves to laugh and dance and throws himself into everything he does, whether work or play, with total joy. Why don’t you bite yourself off a piece”? is Mick’s philosophy. Mick embraces life and all it throws his way. His childhood may have been poor, but it was filled with love and Mick is one of the most naturally happy men I have ever met. Since he was very young, he has been the support of his 13 siblings whom he loves very much. All these disparate physical features combine to make a striking woman who is very attractive to her pupil Mick Tremore.Īs for Mick – such an adorable man! He grew up in Cornwall the oldest child of a fey mother and an absent father. She has small breasts and large hips, but she has beautiful long legs. She is six feet tall, with golden red hair and freckles.

When Winnie’s father and grandfather both died unexpectedly, her cousin the new Duke would have nothing to do with her, so she has made her way in life by her own intelligence and hard work. She lived a lonely life, raised by a series of governesses and has had almost no fun in her life. Her mother deserted the family and Winnie was loved, but ignored by her father. Winnie is the daughter of the Marquess of Sissingley, an expert linguist and heir to the Dukedom of Arles.

Edwina Bollash, linguistics expert and tutor of gauche young ladies in the social graces and proper speech is to take Mick Tremore, a Cornish/Cockney ratcatcher and pass him off as a gentleman. Judith Ivory takes this story and gives it a twist, (and a lot more romance than grumpy old GBS did). The Pygmalion myth gave George Bernard Shaw the idea for his play Pygmalion which was turned into the wonderful musical My Fair Lady.

The Proposition by Judith Ivory