A - Z OF PEOPLE WATCHING: K IS FOR KISSING

Call me old fashioned, or perhaps a romantic at heart, but a kiss, especially a first kiss, should be a very special thing. 

K is for Kissing

What I love, is that there are so many different types of kisses. Kisses for every person, and for every occasion. As someone once said, you wouldn't kiss your mother like you would kiss your lover.

There are the friendly greetings, or cheek kisses. Sometimes you might not even make actually contact with the other person, particularly if you don't know or like the other person very well.

There's the tentative kiss for not quite friends, not quite lovers. This kiss involves a whole dilemma of where you should actually aim for when kissing them. Cheek or lips? In the most awkward of situations, one person will be aiming for somewhere different to the other person, and there will be an inevitable bumping of noses. How embarrassing!

More comfortable couples will often share a quick peck.

And if you happen to be out on the town of a Saturday night you might see the full-on snog. Full of passion, emotion and plenty of tongue, thankfully you don't see this too often in public.

Then there is the first kiss; my favourite to read about or watch on screen. A perfect first kiss should be a mix of tentative nerves, excitement, desire, shyness and longing. And if there has been a build up to the kiss, all the better. Think Leonardo and Clare in Romeo & Juliet.

For a first kiss, I simply adore the following passage from Seraphina by Rachel Hartman:

If I could keep a single moment for all time, that would be the one.
I became the very air; I was full of stars. I was the soaring spaces between the spires of the cathedral, the solemn breath of chimneys, a whispered prayer upon the winter wind. I was silence, and I was music, one clear transcendent chord rising toward Heaven. I believed, then, that I would have risen bodily into the sky but for the anchor of his hand in my hair and his round, soft, perfect mouth.

There is something so magical, beautiful and pure about the way Rachel Hartman has written this kiss. Rather than a blow by blow account, Seraphina's account focuses on the emotional impact of how it makes her feel.

Do you have a perfect book or movie kiss?