When I was asked to review this book I accosted three young women at a wedding and buttonholed them about their sexual fantasies. Two declined to be drawn. The third, a hairdresser, looked at me aghast, rose from her chair and walked away.

Rachel Silver has had a good deal more success. She has a talent for drawing people out, as she showed in her book of interviews, Establishment Wives. Many she approached for this survey were reluctant to talk at all. The twenty-six women who did – who range in age from twenty-two to a grandmother of fifty-one – are all remarkably uninhibited.

Silver belongs to the school of thought that sees sexuality as a source of female power and a liberating force. Her fellow sisters include Madonna and Camille Paglia. Talking about sex is one thing. But it beggars belief why anyone of either gender would agree to have his or her