First a bit of boasting. Lady Beware is selling extremely well! Thus far it's made #66 on the USA Today bestseller list, #3 on the Borders/Waldenbooks paperback romance list, #15 on the Publishers Weekly mass market paperback list, and #35 on the extended New York Times paperback list.
(In case you're interested in the differences -- the USAT is nearly all books published; tho Borders/Waldenbooks is as said, paperback romance; the PW is all mass market; NYT is all paperbacks, including trade paperbacks. Now wasn't that fun!*G*)
But being on the lists is lots of fun, and now it's summertime, so great dark chocolate all around!
And let's celebrate by ogling manly chests. We've touched on this before, and it certainly stirs debate everywhere -- male chest hair.
"Why do all those cover models wax their chests?" people ask. "No man has a hairless chest," a friend of mine insisted. "It has to be waxed."
I'm here to say that it's largely a matter of geography, and it's my opinion and experience that Englishmen are a lot less likely to have chest hair than some other nationalities. So, with many historicals being set in England, lack of chest hair isn't unreasonable. No, honestly! as they used to say in a TV program a long, long time ago. (It was a good one.)
Consider, for example, some famous Englishmen. For discretion's sake, I trimmed the picture of John Lennon.
On to Mick Jagger. 
source here
I think you'll agree he's very unlikely to ever have shaved or waxed his chest! 
Source here
In the interests of fairness, I tried to find a picture of Ioan Gruffyd's chest (would be nice, wouldn't it?) but couldn't. What I did discover was an extreme lack of pictures of manly chests on line. Looking at pictures of celebrities, often there's more chest exposed on the lady on their arm than on them. This seems most unfair.
Yes, I know I could find lots on certain sorts of sites. Not going there.*G*
But Ioan probably is hirsute because he's a different type -- a dark Welshman. Like Tom Jones, for example, who never was too shy about his chest hair. Except that again, I could hardly find anything! No wonder naked chests are popular with some romance readers.
On the other hands, this picture of Sir Tom in younger days shows very little hair, so perhaps I'm wrong.
You might find the accompanying story interesting as another wrinkle on everyday life in Britain.
Newspaper article
Any comments on differences in social nuances between North America and Britain?
I tried thinking of recent handsome English personalities -- and kept landing on Welsh, Scottish and Irish! Someone help me out here.
Ah, Sean Bean! Good Yorkshire lad. Did you know he was an artist's model/inspiration in a movie about Caravaggio? The things one learns writing blogs!
Just a bit of hair there, I think. Low down.
And talking about art. I confess, I didn't know John Singer Sargent painted nudes, but
Sargent site.
And of course there's the famous Michelangelo Adam. Presumably Italian, though.
So, struggling for more examples. I went to the famous Fiennes family, which is, I think, as English as they come. And found hair.
Though again, shockingly coy about it!
But you might want to read the article about Joseph Fiennes ancestor Frederick Benjamin Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 16th Baron Saye and Sele, for a glimpse into a typical aristocratic family.
Article.
My conclusion is, smooth is perfectly authentic in your English hero, but if you like, you can have a bit of rough. Don't mind me if I prefer smooth. :)
So, what do you think? Does it bother you to even think of a man with a smooth chest? Do you feel he can't be as manly as one with hair there?
Do you think the more hair the more manly? If so, where does it stop?
And do you have any great illustrations to direct us to to support your agrument?
Jo