It was only a matter of time before the glittering lights of the ITV studios came calling for our very own Joanne Grant, Senior Executive Editor at Mills & Boon! And so, it was with stars in her eyes and butterflies in her stomach that Jo appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh show…with the green-fingered, horticultural heartthrob himself!

We’ve been digging up the dirt on this unlikely hero and how he still manages to melt the hearts of so many women around the nation! A groundforce to be reckoned with, this ripened regular on our television screens comes from an era where good ol’ chivalric values still ruled. A man who’s just as comfortable in a crisp tuxedo and cummerbund as he is with water in his wellies and soil under his fingernails, he’s both accessible and aspirational – the true romantic hero!

And Jo has professed that she felt just like one of our heroines…as their eyes locked across the studio, Alan made her feel like she was the only lady in the room. But of course, it’s the twinkle in his eye that ensures this ravishing rake remains the apple of our own. We’re looking for a man who makes us go weak at the knees, for all the right reasons…and a few of the wrong ones, too.

Modern women are far from damsels-in-distress, we don’t need to be rescued by a knight in shining armour, without a speck of dirt in sight. We want a real man, someone who’s not afraid of a little bit of filth – and that twinkle of debauchery goes a long way! No one ever fell in love with a stick-in-the-mud, but this man who stands-in-the-mud has certainly got our hearts all aflutter! ’Scuse the overwhelming number of puns, it’s like opening a can of worms…

And if it’s a touch of sinful wickedness you’re after this month, look no further! Zachary Black: Duke of Debauchery by Carol Mortimer (Historical, October 2014) gives you London’s most dissolute bachelor…and the book was even featured on The Alan Titchmarch show! No one knows how to sin quite like Zachary Black, Duke of Hawksmere. So when he finds a mysterious veiled woman hiding in his carriage there’s only one thing to do – carry her to his bedchamber and find out what she wants! But coming face-to-face with beautiful Lady Georgianna Lancaster, his former fiancé, unnerves Zachary. Maybe the best way to restore his equilibrium is to hold her captive…and turn the secrets of the past into the sins of the present!

Our tryst with the most genteel of gardeners, Mr Alan Titchmarsh, may be over but this horticultural hero stole our hearts a long time ago. Handy with a hoe, master of the secateurs, one thing’s for sure…there’s only one man we want in our (flower) beds.

 You can follow our editors Charlotte and Jo on Twitter.

By The Mills & Boon team