Dating apps are killing romance says BBC presenter and historian Dr Lucy Worsley, because they make it “far too easy” for the modern-day dater.

Speaking to the Radio Times about apps such as Tinder, which an estimated 50 million people are thought to use every month, Dr Worsley says, “How could Jane Austen have written her novels about the slow, exquisite torture of love in an age of Grindr and Tinder, when bored singletons search for one-night stands with a few clicks of their mobiles?”

“Austen’s heroines worked hard to find The One by overcoming obstacles of social class, parental disapproval and the law. But these days it’s far too easy for romance to flourish.”

Dr Worsley, 41, who is presenting a new BBC series on romantic fiction called A Very British Romance, adds that although the apps make it easier to meet people, they are “bad for the writers of romantic fiction, the genre that has given us the happiest and most enjoyable of books and films.”

“As we see in period dramas, it’s when there are terrible obstacles between couples that romance thrives best.”

Why Tinder is killing romance. Do you agree?