Tim Fountain set out here to explore Britain’s sexual highways and byways, to explore the fetish clubs, swingers’ clubs, dogging sites and much, much more. He didn’t want to just observe but to explore and experience the sexual underbelly of Britain, the side of Britain that isn’t celebrated in the guide books, well most of them. The result is this book, but it’s more than just a chronical through one man’s sexual adventure.

What lifts this book is Fountain’s style and perspective. He doesn’t make fun of or caricature the people he is writing about, he tries to get to know them instead, even when those people are caricaturing themselves. His descriptions aren’t salacious or voyeuristic, this isn’t soft porn masquerading as serious writing. Fountain’s writing does have a strong feel of place, and many of these places are sadly seedy. So many of these clubs are housed in rundown places, as if the venue reflects the embarrassment the participants feel. Fountain’s feeling for place is at its best with his description of a heterosexual brothel, housed on a rundown Manchester industrial estate.

Fountain wrote this book after writing and performing his one-man play Sex Addict. He had come out about having sex with over 5,000 people and been labelled a pervert by the mainstream media for that. This book was written after that and seems to be his way of exploring what is labelled “abnormal” by the same mainstream media. But this book is as much about Fountain as those he’s writing about and this adds to the satisfaction of this read. Throughout the book he is emailing and flirting with a man called Richard, who lives in Glasgow. They met after Richard saw a production of Fountain’s play. This anchors the book in Fountain’s own story.

This book was written in 2008, before dating apps, but Fountain charts how much dating and hooking-up had already moved online. So much of this book wouldn’t have been possible without the internet, Fountain wouldn’t have found a fraction of these different groups without it, he made so many contacts via the internet and forums on his laptop.

Fountain’s prose and insights lift this book into the fascinating read that it is. This isn’t a smut book, as its title and cover might suggest, but a fascinating journey through a side of British society that we don’t talk about, much. Unfortunately, and not by Fountain’s choice, many of his trips through this world are on the seedy side, though he never openly laughs at them.

Find it here on Amazon