Lifestyle - Joy of Sex redone for the internet gen

The bestselling 1970s ‘family’ sex manual gets a makeover with an updated September release
LONDON: Thirty five years after Dr Alex Comfort introduced the world to The Joy of Sex, his seminal manual on how to pep up love lives, the book itself being spiced up to appeal to a 21st-century readership.
Modern lovers will be introduced to the ‘Venus butterfly’, the sensual delights of body paint and ‘love maps’, as well as the challenging discovery that there are A- and U-spots to look for, besides the famous G-spot. The New Joy of Sex, out in September, is described as a modern take on the original. The new edition attempts to replicate the original 1972 cover of a semi-clad woman in the embrace of a hirsute Seventies man – who this time is beardless.
So readers will be enlightened on HRT, Viagra and on therapy for sexual problems. For the less inhibited, there are sections on how to incorporate phone sex and technology into the physical relationship. Sex shops, striptease and fantasy sections are included. The book retains its ‘cordon bleu guide to love-making’ theme, with sections on ingredients, appetisers, main courses, sauces and pickles.
Comfort, an academic, died in 2000, but his son, political journalist Nicholas Comfort, has overseen the revision work along with relationship psychologist Susan Quilliam.
The latest edition contains 120 new photographs and drawings. “It is a mixture of photographs and illustration, because you cannot show a photograph of penetrative sex, as it then becomes pornographic,” said Smith. “So readers will see the photograph of a sensual moment, but the actual positions will be illustrated.”
“This is the kind of sex manual that Grandma and Grandpa might find enlightening and enjoyable. Anyone younger would be better off with any one of the truly up-to-date, enlightened sex books lining bookstore shelves today,” says R Hansen, a reader, while another, A Saafir says, “The new edition is beautifully printed with elegant line drawings and full color photographs. It preserves the quirky charm of the original edition, but this may be its biggest flaw.”