Everyone Needs A Bedtime Story

Category: Thoughts

Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England: Aphrodisiacs

I don’t often often feature nonfiction on my blog, but today I make a worthy exception.

This book –  Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England – by fellow novelist and historian, Carol McGrath, promises to be something special. So, if you have a fascination with the Tudor period, this is a must read.

This blog is the first on a blog tour.

Over to you Carol..

There has long been an appetite by readers and film viewers for the Tudor period as portrayed in novels, sumptuous costume dramas and documentary film. Have you ever been curious about the Tudors’ view of sex and sexuality? My recently published book Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England reveals myths and truths about how our Tudor antecedents conducted their sexual relationships romantic affairs, and marriages. Amongst many interesting titbits I discovered whilst researching this book aphrodisiacs as used or thought about in Tudor times intrigued me.

An aphrodisiac is a food, drink or drug that increases libido and enhances sexual pleasure and performance. These aids to sexual performance have been recorded throughout history. One of the earliest treatments for impotence appears in an ancient Hindu text known as Sushruta Samhita c.600 BC. It suggests powders of sesame and sali rice should be mixed with saindhara salt and a quantity of the juice of sugar cane mixed with hog’s lard and cooked with clarified butter. Medieval and Tudor people believed the food they consumed could influence their sex lives; it was all part of the humoral notion. They thought, according to medical theory, that food and drink was one of the things on which health should depend. A poor diet could cause illness but a patient could be restored to health by changes in diet. This sounds rather familiar.

However, they also believed that food and drink could solve sexual problems including impotence and infertility. Medieval medical texts contained references to foods and sexual advice for the late medieval man. Constantine the African was a translator of Arabic medieval texts into Latin. He lived in Salerno, Italy’s medical centre during the medieval era. His text on human fertility, De Coitu, has a section on foods and herbs which provoke desire. These were foods that were likely to generate semen and incite a man to intercourse. He also suggested foods to dry up and diminish semen so that men could eat according to whichever condition they suffered- whether too much desire or too little of it. Medieval doctors believed semen was a processed form of blood and therefore derived from food.

Three types of food were conducive to the production of semen and were grouped as nourishing foods, foods especially windy and foods that are warm and moist. Chickpeas contain all three and were considered an aphrodisiac. Other foods they thought drew out and produced semen were fresh meat, pepper, wine, brains, and egg yolks. However, cold foods such as fish, cucumber and lettuce might repress, impede or thicken semen and therefore destroy lust.

Aphrodisiac recipes were included in handbooks and regimes to help Tudor men with their sexual problems. Cloves in milk and blueberry juice, the brains of small sparrows, grease surrounding the kidneys of a freshly killed billy goat, all these might treat impotence. On the other hand, rue, powdered and added to a potion, could be drunk to dry out sperm, and the juice of water lilies taken for forty days might take care of the over-sexed problem.

The oyster is the most well-known and enduring of aphrodisiacs. During the sixteenth century oysters came into their own as a libidoenhancing culinary food. In 1566 Alain Chartier suggested oysters ‘doe provoke lecherie.’ Pickled oysters were sold in brothels in 1646. It is likely they were also sold in brothels during the previous century as a sex-inducing food. This no doubt stems from the fact that an oyster has a resemblance to the vulva with soft folds of pink, salty flesh with nestling pearls. It was slang for vulva during the sixteenth century and later the figure of an oyster girl selling them on the streets became associated with sex workers. There has been no scientific evidence that oysters are an aphrodisiac although they are a healthy food. Shellfish, though, are associated with Aphrodite-Venus who was allegedly born from the sea and appears in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

DID YOU KNOW ?

An anophrodisiac, the opposite of an aphrodisiac, was intended to supress libido and impair sexual function. Anophrodisiacs fell into three categories: starving the body, cooling the body and sedating the body. Sedating might be achieved through fasting and rigorous exercise. Early Christian saints regularly fasted to purify the body and monks would starve for long periods to control their sexual hunger and desire for food.

Regimen Studies by Maino de Maineri suggests the man who wished to avoid the production of semen and repress lust should make use of cold foods such as lentil water cooled with cauliflower seeds, water lily and lettuce seeds, lettuce water made slightly vinegary, or seeds of purslane. Camphor was considered useful to dry out lustful parts and if rubbed on the penis might keep the member flaccid. Spicy hot food could inflame the senses but cucumbers were cool and bland and even though phallic in shape were considered an effective anophrodisiac.

In the sixteenth century Francis Rabelais suggested, in addition to the benefits of water lily seeds, willow twigs, hemp stalks, woodbine, honeysuckle, tamarisk, mandrake, and the dried out skin of a hippo. In a way, Rabelais was sending up medieval quackery.

I am not sure I would want to put much store in any of the remedies above. This information carries a health warning. Don’t try it at home!

You can buy Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England here https://tinyurl.com/2p9ayfca

Bio

Following a first degree in English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing from The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in English from University of London. The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAS in 2014. The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister complete this highly acclaimed trilogy. Mistress Cromwell, a best-selling historical novel about Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Henry VIII’s statesman, Thomas Cromwell, published by Headline in 2020. The Silken Rose, first in a Medieval She-Wolf Queens Trilogy, featuring Ailenor of Provence, was published on 2nd April 2020. This was followed by The Damask Rose. The Stone Rose will be published April 2022 completing the Trilogy. Carol is writing Historical non-fiction as well as fiction. Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England was published in January 2022.

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Many thanks for visiting today Carol, good luck with your new book and your blog tour.

Kay x

(This blog also features on my www.jennykane.co.uk website)

Words are Sexy: Using erotica to improve your sex life

Over the years I’ve written about the importance of communicating your desires for various websites, magazines and blogposts. It’s been a while since I shared such thoughts here, however. Time to put that right…

against-the-wall

Everyone likes to be told that they’re beautiful or handsome.

Who wouldn’t want to hear a lover, or a potential lover, say that they could get lost in your eyes, or that you have an amazing body?

Doesn’t it feel amazing when someone’s expression alone tells you that they could stare at your chest all day, and that they dream of caressing your butt at the most inappropriate of moments?

These compliments, spoken or blatantly unspoken, can frequently be a front to hidden desires beneath.

When you tell someone, ‘I’ve been thinking about your butt all day,’ did you actually want to say, ‘I can’t stop thinking about licking your arse,’ or ‘I want to spank your butt until its bright red and you’re begging for me to fuck you,’ or even, ‘I can’t stop fantasizing about having anal sex with you?’

Taking the leap from making a flattering or suggestive remark to communicating your deepest sexual desires and fantasies can be a daunting or embarrassing prospect. Many couples go through their entire lives without ever being brave enough to tell each other what they’d really like to happen within their sex lives.

dirty-mind

So, how can this barrier of blushes be breached?

Read some erotica. There is a massive array of wonderfully sexy stories available, suiting all genres, tastes, and sexual orientations. Start by reading a sexy story on your own. See what story lines work for you, find your secret fantasises in written form, and maybe discover new ones. Try reading your favourite parts of a story out to yourself; this can help you to build up your confidence, and become more relaxed about telling your lover what you’d like.

Once you’ve found what sends you into masturbation mode, then it’s time to tell your partner about it. Start by saying that you’ve found a great story that you’d really like to share with them. If you feel brave enough, read it out loud to them. Reading to someone is a sexy experience in its own right, and saying sexual words aloud can be a huge turn on.

hugs-sexy

However, if you can’t bring yourself to speak the dirty words you want to share, don’t despair. Mark the start and end of the piece you want your loved one to see, and encourage them to read it to themselves. Stay close while they’re reading, caress their skin, do something familiar that you already know they’ll enjoy- who knows what might happen next…

If you yearn to be tied and beaten, but you aren’t sure how your lover will respond to this request, start by finding erotic stories concerning light bondage and the occasional slap- then build up slowly to your true desires. (Maybe start with something like A Sticky Situation, before moving on to full on BDSM, such as The Voyeur)

Rather than be repulsed by learning what their partners secretly want, sharing erotica has been shown to help create a private environment of trust, lowered inhibitions, and a mutual sharing of ideas and desires.

naughty-bed

Although taking the initial step towards telling your partner what you’d like in the bedroom (or anywhere for that matter) maybe daunting, research has shown that it can lead to a fuller, happier, and far more exciting sex life.

Happy reading,

Kay xx

text-me

 

 

 

World Book Day: My favourite erotic reads

It’s World Book Day!

What better day to celebrate than to explore the wonder of reading and writing erotica.

Writing erotica is an incredibly freeing experience. There is a joy in writing about people at their most sensitive, vulnerable, daring, and bravest…and most of all, happiest!

Reading and writing erotica is so much fun – and if you read it to your partner out loud – it can be more fun still.

So tonight- rather than tuck into a binge watch of the latest TV boxed set- why not binge read some erotic romance or erotica? There really is something for everyone on the erotic bookshelf.

But what to read?

Well obviously you could indulge in a Kay Jaybee book! (My favourites- if pushed- would be Not Her Type and The Fifth Floor)

 

However- you may want to look at one of my 5 favourites instead…

The Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin

One of the most influential and ground-breaking anthologies of all time, The Delta of Venus, a collection of 15 sexy tales, was as popular in the 70’s and 80’s as Fifty Shades of Grey is today. Originally written in the 1940’s for a private erotica collector, it wasn’t until 1977 that The Delta of Venus was published. Written with an almost poetic flourish, Nin’s short stories ooze sensuality and eroticism from each page, whether the tale in question is gently romantic or shockingly dark. From The Hungarian Adventurer to The Basque and Bijou, each piece will stay with you forever, gently working their way into your own fantasies, whether you realise it or not…

 

The Initiation of Miss Holly (Book One in the Mount Series) by KD Grace

What would you do if you were stuck on a broken down train in the Channel Tunnel in the dark? KD Grace, on finding herself in exactly that situation, decided to write one of the most sensual and unpredictable erotic romances I’ve ever read.

Beginning with a chocolate truffle, a blindfold, and sex with a stranger on a train, The Initiation of Miss Holly, takes Rita Holly on a journey of forbidden sex. As she tries to discover more about the man on the train – a man she has never set eyes on- Rita finds herself initiated into the secretive Mount Club. Suddenly, Miss Holly is about to discover what her mind and her body are really capable of…

Cassandra’s Conflict by Frederica Allen

Cassandra’s Conflict was the first full length erotic novel to be published by the original Black Lace publishing house, and it took the erotica reading world by storm.

I will always have a soft spot for this book- which is ironic, because there is nothing soft about it at all. Cassandra’s Conflict gave me my first taste of intelligently written, high octane, mind twisting BDSM. Proving that setting dark eroticism in a world of decadent indulgence has very little to do with money, but everything to do with trust, Cassandra’s Conflict takes a governess into the mysterious sexual world of a Baron living in Hampstead. Cassandra quickly finds herself drawn into a set of games where lust feeds off submission. Games where the Baron frequently changes the rules, and only obedience matters…

Sweet Love: Erotic Fantasises for Couples ed. Violet Blue

Compiled by Violet Blue, one of the world’s most respected erotic writers, editors, and sexperts, Sweet Love is a collection of sensually powerful, fantasy driven stories aimed at couples.

If you’ve never read erotica aloud to your partner before, then this is a great book to try doing just that. There is something very sexy about hearing your lover read dirty words out loud- especially if you are reciting stories that happen to contain a taste of your partner’s favourite fantasies.

Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel

Who doesn’t love a quickie?  All 69 stories within this amazing anthology are 1,200 words or less. Each one could melt the icing off your Christmas cake.

Every kinky scenario you can think of is catered for, from sex with neighbours, co-workers, long-term partners, to full on BDSM play. If your life doesn’t leave much time for reading, then this turn-on teaser of a book would be just perfect for you.

***

Whatever you read today- enjoy every word!

Happy reading,

Kay xx

Words are Sexy: Using erotica to improve your sex life

Over the years I’ve written about the importance of communicating your desires for various websites, magazines and blogposts. It’s been a while since I shared such thoughts here, however. Time to put that right…

against-the-wall

Everyone likes to be told that they’re beautiful or handsome.

Who wouldn’t want to hear a lover, or a potential lover, say that they could get lost in your eyes, or that you have an amazing body?

Doesn’t it feel amazing when someone’s expression alone tells you that they could stare at your chest all day, and that they dream of caressing your butt at the most inappropriate of moments?

These compliments, spoken or blatantly unspoken, can frequently be a front to hidden desires beneath.

When you tell someone, ‘I’ve been thinking about your butt all day,’ did you actually want to say, ‘I can’t stop thinking about licking your arse’, or ‘I want to spank your butt until its bright red and you’re begging for me to fuck you’, or even, ‘I can’t stop fantasizing about having anal sex with you?’

Taking the leap from making a flattering or suggestive remark to communicating your deepest sexual desires and fantasies can be a daunting or embarrassing prospect. Many couples go through their entire lives without ever being brave enough to tell each other what they’d really like to happen within their sex lives.

dirty-mind

So, how can this barrier of blushes be breached?

Read some erotica. There is a massive array of wonderfully sexy stories available, suiting all genres, tastes, and sexual orientations. Start by reading a sexy story on your own. See what story lines work for you, find your secret fantasises in written form, and maybe discover new ones. Try reading your favourite parts of a story out to yourself; this can help you to build up your confidence, and become more relaxed about telling your lover what you’d like.

Once you’ve found what sends you into masturbation mode, then it’s time to tell your partner about it. Start by saying that you’ve found a great story that you’d really like to share with them. If you feel brave enough, read it out loud to them. Reading to someone is a sexy experience in its own right, and saying sexual words aloud can be a huge turn on.

hugs-sexy

However, if you can’t bring yourself to speak the dirty words you want to share, don’t despair. Mark the start and end of the piece you want your loved one to see, and encourage them to read it to themselves. Stay close while they’re reading, caress their skin, do something familiar that you already know they’ll enjoy- who knows what might happen next…

If you yearn to be tied and beaten, but you aren’t sure how your lover will respond to this request, start by finding erotic stories concerning light bondage and the occasional slap- then build up slowly to your true desires. (Maybe start with something like A Sticky Situation, before moving on to full on BDSM, such as The Voyeur)

Rather than be repulsed by learning what their partners secretly want, sharing erotica has been shown to help create a private environment of trust, lowered inhibitions, and a mutual sharing of ideas and desires.

naughty-bed

Although taking the initial step towards telling your partner what you’d like in the bedroom (or anywhere for that matter) maybe daunting, research has shown that it can lead to a fuller, happier, and far more exciting sex life.

Happy reading,

Kay xx

text-me

 

 

 

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