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Book description

Everything you always wanted to know about the more curious aspects of sex but were afraid to ask: the history of sex; sex and religion; sex and the law; sexual customs around the world; the biology of sex; the physiology of sex, anatomical curiosities; Gay and lesbian sex; sex and the animal kingdom; the great sex manuals; sex in literature, film and art; sex aids and toys; aphrodisiacs; masturbation; pornography; famous sexual athletes (and famous flops); the language of sex; kinks and fetishes; perversions; urban myths, tales of outrageous behaviour and a catalogue of bizarre facts and figures. Did you know---One of the lesser-known fetishes is Axillism ? the erotic attraction of armpits.--In the Lebanon it is legal for a man to have sex with any female animal, but if he has sex with a male animal it is punishable by death.--Cleopatra is said to have owned one of the world's first vibrators. Cleopatra's toy didn't run on batteries, it was insect powered - a small, hollow implement full of buzzing bees.--Arab fishermen used to have sex with any 'dugong' (sea-cow) they accidentally drowned in their nets. This practice was meant to stop the dead animal's relatives seeking revenge and drowning the fisherman. Stephen Arnott is the author of Now Wash Your Hands! a cultural history of the toilet, and The Languid Goat is Always Thin, a collection of the world's strangest proverbs. Born in Jamaica, he currently lives in North London.