There’s an enduring myth that the Victorians’ inhibitions about sex were so extreme that they actually covered up piano legs to discourage any association with the female ankle, but the truth is the Victorians had a powerful, if repressed, sexual appetite. After all, this was a time when prostitution was legal and the perusal of […]

There’s no shortage of descriptive terms for sex; the one above is used in Othello by William Shakespeare. Here are a few more: A bit of the old in and out ♦ baking cookies ♦ bang ♦ bash the beaver ♦ bonk ♦ bumpin’ fuzzies ♦ butter the muffin ♦ churning butter ♦ corrupt the […]

SWING SPEAK Can entertain: willing to invite people home for swinging ♦ Can travel:willing to go to someone’s home ♦ Closed swinging: separate rooms to avoidmarried couples seeing each other with someone else ♦ Culture: fetishisms♦ Docile: a willing participant in domination and bondage ♦ Domestictraining: household chores in a humiliating fashion ♦ English culture:spanking […]

Genesis: Withdrawal, coitus interruptus, mentioned in the Bible ЮООвс: First sheath is made of linen and used in ancient Egypt 384-322bc: Aristotle is believed to have suggested cedar oil, lead ointment and frankincense oil as spermicides ad1 00-200: Cave paintings in Les Combarelles, France suggest use of condoms in Europe 1564: First literary reference to […]

‘There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, shehad so many children she didn’t know what todo… Obviously.’ Barry Cryer, I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, BBC radio quiz, 1979 ‘Protestant women may take the pill. Roman Catholic women mustkeep taking the tablet.’ Irene Thomas, broadcaster and writer PACK OF NINE ♦ Vagina […]

Brave and depraved, adventurous and immoral, admired and notorious. Restrained? Not likely. Promiscuous? Absolutely. When it came to sex, the Romans really seized the day. ♦ad14-37 TIBERIUS Spent the last years of his life on the island of Capri; his bedroom walls depicted sexual acts and positions, while he indulged in twisted pleasures with his […]

The Greeks The word ‘orgy’ originates from the ancient Greek for religious service and referred to rituals in tribute to Dionysus, the god whose remit included wine, ecstasy and madness. His Roman equivalent was Bacchus. Before orgies, the ancient Greeks necked gallons of wine, banging drums, blowing reed pipes and calling out to the gods […]

Artificial sex organs shaped from carved-out pumpkins orbamboo moistened with oil * dolls * devices mentioned in theKama Sutra included dildos made of gold, silver, wood, rubber orhorn * stone dildos, anal toys and ring-shaped devices featuredin an ancient’sex shop’ unearthed in Peru * Chinese dildos madeof jade or bronze * the soft touch preferred […]

The zero-gravity sex chair ❖ mobile-phone-radiation-proofunderwear for men ❖ a vibrator extension that plugs into an electrictoothbrush ❖ Japanese silk bondage ropes ❖ remote-controlledvibrators ❖ hands-free ‘butterflies’ German footballers Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn successfully sued sex shop Beate Uhse for €50,000 for marketing vibrators under the names ‘Michael B.’ and ‘Olli КЛ

Lovestruck St Valentine’s Day, named after an early Christian martyr, almost certainly has its origins in the Graeco-Roman holidays devoted to fertility and love such as the Lupercalia (the feast of Lupercus, the wolf hunter) on the 14th and 15th February, of which Plutarch wrote: ‘At this time many of the noble youths and of […]