Storm

In 1964 Georgie Storm – a handsome, clever boy, from a well-to-do family – received a Valentine’s Day card. The twee, crimson cordate on its front an unwitting tribute to still-beating organs torn from victims’ breasts. Long before the Christian Martyr Valentine gave his name to it, the mid-February festival of hearts and blood was observed regardless. The Romans called it Lupercalia, though its origins were ancient and obscure even to them. Fertility and flagellation, sex and sacrifice, had always been the cornerstones of its rituals. Love and lust are the most powerful of enchantments, rendering men and women blind to all else once under their sweet spell.