'One day someone came back from half-term with Delta of Venus, by Anais Nin ...Well. Well. The book briskly did the rounds, getting tattier and tattier with each reading. Mouths dropped open in shock. Eyes popped with disbelief. Did people really...Did men really want to ...?' Edited and introduced by India Knight, THE DIRTY BITS - FOR GIRLS is an unmissable collection. From zipless action in Fear of Flying to jolly romps with Jilly Cooper; from transgressions with a priest in The Thorn Birds to mischief with Mellors; from a gentle first encounter with 'Ralph' in Forever to anything and everything but gentle in The Story of O. Even Keats, Chaucer and Shakespeare are up for no good. These are the stories that taught us about sex, volumes pilfered from our parents' bookshelves, books passed girl to girl, hidden in desks, whispered and wondered about.

Introduction

from Reaency Buck by Georgette Heyer

from The Passion-Flower Hotel by Rosalind Erskine

from Lady Chatterlev's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

from The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats

from Scruples by Judith Krantz

from Delta of Venus by Anais Nin

from Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

from Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

from Kinflicks by Lisa Alther

from Fanny Hill by John Cleland

from Octavia by Jilly Cooper

from My Secret Life by 'Walter'

from Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

from 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue' by Geoffrey Chaucer

from Story ofO byPauline Reage

from Couples by John Updike

from The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

from Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

from Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

from Ulysses by James Joyce

from Forever by Judy Blume

Biographical Notes

Acknowledgements