BBC RADIO 4

Today Weekdays 6-9am and Saturdays 7-9am

Page last updated at 08:58 GMT, Friday, 6 July 2012 09:58 UK

How do you write about sex?

Advertisement

The mummy porn novel Fifty Shades of Grey has made the subject of sex fashionable again, but how do you write about sex in fiction?

Man Booker prize-winning author John Banville believes that sex "arises from the situation, the characters, the plot... It's not something you set out to do".

Rachel Johnson, whose book Shire Hell was the winner of the bad sex in fiction award in 2008, told the Today programme that literary fiction can "convey the intimacy and authenticity" of the act rather than describe the "actual physical calisthenics".


Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.

SEE ALSO

Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific