Best books for... affairs with younger men: DAISY GOODWIN looks at examples in fiction of women falling for toyboys 

  • Daisy Goodwin's relative left her husband for a man 17 years younger
  • Jilly Cooper's novel is all about the restorative power of lust
  • Colette is less sure about engaging in relationships with younger man

By Daisy Goodwin for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:46 EST, 5 June 2016 | Updated: 21:50 EST, 5 June 2016

The author and broadcaster suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life

When a close relative of mine left her husband and children for a man 17 years younger than her, it sent shock waves through the family.

The men were horrified; the women were divided between the horror that she would leave her children, and a barely concealed envy.

In her page-turner The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Lysander Hawksley, a penniless young man of great beauty, makes his living by giving the neglected wives of Cooper¿s fictional county Rutshire, back their glow

In her page-turner The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Lysander Hawksley, a penniless young man of great beauty, makes his living by giving the neglected wives of Cooper’s fictional county Rutshire, back their glow

My relative found being with a younger man made her feel young again. Grace Carmichael, the heroine of Ann Bridge’s touching love story Illyrian Spring, goes on a cruise to the Dalmatian coast because she feels ignored by her philandering husband and overbearing children. On the trip she meets a man who is sensitive, clever and talented, her ideal man, in fact - except he is half her age.

He falls madly in love with her and she finds herself responding. They are on the cusp of having an affair when the young man falls ill and she finds herself nursing him. At the sight of his helplessness, Grace finds her maternal feelings overtake her romantic ones, and she draws back from the relationship. But the encounter changes the way she feels about herself, and consequently her relationship with her family.

Perhaps because the book was written in the Thirties, it doesn’t involve sex. Jilly Cooper, on the other hand, is all about the restorative power of lust.

In her page-turner The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Lysander Hawksley, a penniless young man of great beauty, makes his living by giving the neglected wives of Cooper’s fictional county Rutshire, back their glow.

It is a straightforward transaction, Lysander loves making women happy, the women love him making them happy, and the husbands are brought up to scratch by the competition.

In Cheri, her novel about a young man who is in a relationship with an older woman, Lea, she gives Cheri up when he has the chance of making a good marriage

In Cheri, her novel about a young man who is in a relationship with an older woman, Lea, she gives Cheri up when he has the chance of making a good marriage

Cooper is very much of the school that says a little bit of what you fancy, or even quite a lot, can only be a good thing, but Colette, the great French writer who did have an affair with her 16-year-old stepson, is less sure.

In Cheri, her novel about a young man who is in a relationship with an older woman, Lea, she gives Cheri up when he has the chance of making a good marriage. Later she fantasises about having him back.

‘With a strict diet, and my hair properly hennaed, I can hope for ten - no, let’s say five years more.’ But then, with an effort, she recovers: ‘We’ve had a good run for our money,’ she tells herself. As Colette herself knew, you can’t hold on to youth for ever.

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