The Daily Telegraph

Midlife guide to...

Freckling

- Charlotte Lytton

‘In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.’

Is there any reason you’re quoting Tennyson at me?

Because it’s pleasant, obviously. And because it has apparently inspired a new dating trend: freckling.

I’m failing to connect the, erm, dots.

Freckling is dating casually during the warmer months, spurred on by the increase of sun and general post-work frivolity summer provides.

Right. So just an unnecessar­y term for a summer fling, then?

Don’t be such a philistine.

Can you blame me? And where on earth does Tennyson come into all this?

Locksley Hall, which he wrote in 1835, documented ‘young life, its good side, its deficienci­es and its yearnings’ – as fitting a descriptio­n as any of the highs and lows of dabbling with dating. It surmises, according to website Askmen, the romances that present themselves in summertime smattering­s, just like freckles. And lo, a new term has been born.

Aside from using nearly 200-year-old verse to over intellectu­alise interactio­ns between the sexes that have been happening since the dawn of time, does freckling have any actual, y’know, substance?

I’m glad you asked. According to dating website Zoosk, the latter portion of summer is rife for romance, with users reportedly 21 per cent more active in July and August.

All because of a little extra vitamin D. Who’d have thunk it?

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