Playing Cupid by Hillie Marshall: Dating Before the Apps
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Dating has changed quite a bit over the years. These days, meeting someone new can start with a swipe on your phone, but what did matchmaking look like before dating apps became part of everyday life?
Playing Cupid is a new memoir from Hillie Marshall, who founded the introduction agency Dinner Dates in the 1980s before going on to become a familiar face and voice as a dating expert and agony aunt.
With the book due to be released on 9th September, here’s a little more about Hillie’s story.
Playing Cupid by Hillie Marshall
Playing Cupid tells the story of Dinner Dates, the introduction agency Hillie set up in the mid-1980s.
Over the following 20 years, Hillie encountered everything from sweethearts and happy endings to scoundrels, stalkers and heartbreak, while becoming increasingly well known for her advice on dating and relationships.
The memoir looks back at a very different era of dating, before meeting someone online became the norm. Alongside stories from Hillie’s matchmaking years, it also explores lessons she’s picked up about love and life, including the idea that it’s never too late to start over.
Dating Before the Apps
I think this is probably the part of Playing Cupid I find most intriguing.
Online dating has become so normal that it’s strange to think about how differently people met just a few decades ago. An introduction agency offered another way to meet potential partners, but without profiles to scroll through or an algorithm deciding who might be a match.
Dinner Dates went on to become one of the country’s leading social events companies for single people, while Hillie’s experience led to appearances on programmes including The Big Breakfast, This Morning and GMTV. She also had her own show on LBC.
It means Playing Cupid isn’t just Hillie’s personal story, but a glimpse back at a period when the dating world looked very different from the one we know today.
Meet Hillie Marshall
Hillie’s career has taken more than a few interesting turns.
She started out as a radiographer before pursuing a career in theatre, appearing in opera, musical comedy, pantomime and plays.
She later formed her own production company, Edwardians Unlimited, producing Variety and Old Time Music Hall shows featuring names including Barbara Windsor, Roy Hudd, Leslie Crowther, Nicholas Parsons, Clive Dunn and Barry Cryer.
It was during the 1980s, while going through a divorce and bringing up her children, that Hillie founded Dinner Dates.
Her matchmaking experience eventually led to work as an agony aunt online and for magazines and newspapers, as well as television and radio appearances and three books about relationships.
Barbara Windsor once described Hillie as someone who “works from the heart”, adding that “no one has a bigger heart than Hillie.”
Hillie now lives with her second husband between West London and south-west France.
Playing Cupid Release Details
Playing Cupid by Hillie Marshall is published by SilverWood Books and is due for release on 9th September 2026.
The paperback is priced at £14.99, while the Kindle edition is £6.99.
It will be available via Amazon and can also be ordered through bookshops.
Win a Copy of Playing Cupid
Would you like to discover more about Hillie’s years spent playing Cupid?
Thanks to the lovely people behind Playing Cupid, I have three paperback copies to give away, meaning there will be three winners, each receiving a copy of the book.
Simply enter using the Gleam widget below.
Please note that you need to leave your details via the Gleam widget; simply commenting without logging your entry via Gleam will mean your entry is missed in the final draw. You only need to comment once on this post, not daily.
Win 1 of 3 Playing Cupid by Hillie Marshall.This competition has a mandatory entry; once this is completed, all other entries are optional. The more entry methods you enter via, the more chances you will have in the final draw. I’m sorry I’ve had to bring back mandatory comments; I’m getting too many entries from people not in the UK who are just entering via the visit options only and never visiting my blog, thanks to someone pushing out all competitions via scraping the embed and people not reading terms, and it’s making picking a winner very time-consuming. I will monitor the situation, and if it stops, I will go back to having no mandatory entries.
Open to UK residents only. Giveaway closes 21/09. The winner will be chosen at random and contacted by email. Good luck!
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I once went to the cinema to watch History of the World part 1, we laughed that much we are asked to leave for laughing to loud. Never went back to that cinema to watch a comedy again.
We lived in Bournemouth, went to Brighton for the day, boyfriend didn’t know the way home from Brighton, but did know the way from London, so he drove from Brighton to London then to Bournemouth. was nearly breakfast time when we got back.
I once tipped over when trying to reach up to kiss a very tall man. I am five foot one and was wearing platform wedges.
When I met my husband we went for drinks but decided to get something to eat but all the restaurants were fully booked so we ended up going to a fish & chip shop and eating at the little table in there. He was sat there thinking what a disaster it was that he hadn’t taken me somewhere ‘posh’ while I was sat there thinking this is like a cool, indie Hollywood movie romance!
I had been invited over to a guy’s house for a home-cooked meal on a work night. I decided to offer my help in the kitchen and he asked me to get two glasses out of the cupboard for our drinks. I opened the cupboard door, it flew open with gusto and smacked him right in the face. I then had to get a bag of frozen peas out the freezer to put against his face! He messaged me the next morning to tell me that the cupboard door incident had left a big bruise on his face. His work colleagues, who knew we were dating, thought it was hilarious and joked that he had probably just upset me and I had taken it upon myself to slap him in the face!
The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, love Agatha Christie so wasn’t sure if I’d like her new Poirot books but 10 out of 10 x
On a rainy day we went for a drive and i need the toilet i went and as the rain was getting heavy i started running towards the car and slipped and slid right until my legs slid under the stationary car, my partner was in stitches as he thought it was so funny
No funny story – my last read was Doors Open by Ian Rankin. I would rate it 4/5
the guy didn’t know the way to the cinema so we met in Asda carpark
First date with my now husband I had a huge allergic reaction, the side of my face swelled up ad he had to take me to A&E, seventeen years later and happily married, never had a reaction since
Not really funny, but I went on a date with a pampered princess. He expected me to pay for everything. Apparently there was only room for one diva at the table, and I wasn’t giving up my seat
My first date with my husband was a visit to the cinema to see a Tarzan film ( I remember that although he doesn’t). He had to sit on the end of the row as earlier that day he had broken his leg playing football, not a very romantic date. I had to help him home which was slow progress because of his crutches. Anyway it all worked out as we celebrate our 59th wedding anniversary next month
Went to see the worst movie ever then got lost on the motorway
set up in a blind date by my friends – he had 1 eye 1 leg and stunk of B0
I’m reading the The Thursday Murder club, the impossible fortune. It I would rate it 4/5.
Once went on a date with a guy who believed in vampires and said he knew people in the nights watch….there was no second date…..
My last read was The White Road by John Connolly. I rate it 4/5
No funny story, so my last read was The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark, which I rated 3/5 stars