Hunky hero Heathcliff has been voted the literary figure women would most like to snog.

The character from Emily Bront's Wuthering Heights has come tops in a regional poll of more than 600 women.

Behind the survey was the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), whose spokesman Jayne McLaughlan said: "Heathcliff was a very popular choice for women in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

"He has always been a very romantic figure and it seems he has more fans in the region than ever before."

But Bront experts said this week that women were probably attracted to him through his portrayal in films rather than for his actual characteristics in the book.

Ann Dinsdale, librarian at the Bront Parsonage Museum in Haworth, told us: "He has always been romanticised in the films - you think about Timothy Dalton and Laurence Olivier - but in the book he is not an attractive character at all. He is a cruel and ruthless man who ill treats his wife. I don't think he would be my first choice to snog!

"I wonder how many of the women who took part in this survey have read the book."

Parsonage manager Alan Bentley added: "Heathcliff is a bit of a psychopath and I think he comes with a health warning!"

The survey was carried out as part of the RNIB's Right to Read campaign, which aims to highlight the discrimination faced by the blind and partially sighted when buying or borrowing books.

A close second to Heathcliff was Mr Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and in third place was Daniel Cleaver from Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary.