The new Joy of Sex: why you still need help in bed

The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort is such a seminal book that even people who have never laid eyes on a copy know about the iconic bearded man and the saucy French terms, and the troubling references to vacuum cleaner injuries. When it was first published in 1972 the book didn’t just reflect the new free-love, “anything goes as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone” attitude to sex, it also helped to shape already changing attitudes. Since then it has been updated four times and has sold more than eight million copies in 14 countries. Susan Quilliam, the agony aunt and psychologist who has completely updated the book for 2008, was 22 when it first came out and recalls how it touched a nerve. “The Joy of Sex was the first book I read which was sexually aspirational. Someone in my boyfriend’s flat had a copy before he and I had ‘done it’,” she says. “It was very useful. We did giggle but we also thought wow… All the bondage and S&M stuff was very revolutionary. In fact, one of my sadnesses in updating the book is that whatever I did I could never be as revolutionary.” Read Review

By Celia Dodd