Rules of Desire

Tells the history of the changing sexual attitudes of 20th-century Britain. The author explains how the complex public attitudes to sex today have been inherited. Anecdotes, letters and diaries portray intimate private experiences against well-known cases.

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This book tells the history of the changing sexual attitudes of 20th-century Britain: the free love debate, the sex psychologists, the bright young things, homosexual life in the thirties, secret sex and World War II, the sixties and the pill, gay rights, rape laws, the impact of AIDS and whole body sensuality. Anecdotes, letters and diaries portray intimate private experiences against well-known cases from Lady Chatterley to Profumo, Thorpe to Archer and against the dictates of the churches, courts and the media. The author explains how the complex public attitudes to sex today have been inherited, a history of facts and human foibles. Cate Haste has also written "Keep the Home Fires Burning".