This groundbreaking and controversial book is a massively informed yet highly entertaining study of the evolution and nature of sexual desire. Arguing that our sexuality is the result of three interlocking forces - gender, culture and constitution - Simon Andreae examines the process through which we become straight or gay, grow up to desire blondes or brunettes, breasts or buttocks, people who do or don't look like our parents, and sex which is wild or tame. In the process he confronts some of the most fascinating questions which underpin all our lives: why do men and women fantasise about different things, what's so special about one person and not another, and why do we fall in (and out) of love? Whether he is discussing the science of the gay gene, the flagellatory impulses of the Christian clergy, the value of vibrators, or the escapades of a lovesick medieval baron, Andreae digs to the root of the human sex-drive and explores it in lucid and compelling prose.
