The Independent

Laying bare the myths of safe sex

More than one in 10 people (11 per cent) do not realise a woman can get pregnant if she has sex standing up, according to a poll out today.

Inside Love & Sex

Love: The old, old story

It's the fact of life they rarely teach you when you're growing up: the slow, inevitable cooling of desire that creeps up on us with age. Should we welcome it – or rage against the dying of sexual intoxication? Thomas Sutcliffe reflects on love and time

Visitors catching a glimpse of 'Love Land', billed as China's first-ever sex theme park, before its demolition

China takes wrecking ball to erotic theme park

This investment turned out to be as risky as it was risque.

Passing passion: Kathleen Horan's remembrance made her
realise her relationship 'wasn’t all crap'. It also inspired a website for
others to write which has fuelled a book

Queen of broken hearts

How many ways are there to deal with a painful break-up? There's bagging up or burning an errant partner's belongings. Perhaps a few evenings of weepy movies and a bottle or three of Pinot Noir. You can cry it out, exercise it out, diet it out. Or just go-out-it out, hurling yourself around the nightclubs in search of deliciously meaningless rebound sex.

A brief guide to erotic fiction

From the tender to the grotesque, throughout history, erotic literature has offered us a private space in which to celebrate and contemplate the intricate workings of human sexuality. Here, we explore some of the key works of this genre. Click the image on the right to launch.

Modern Cupid: Does Matthew Hussey hold the secret every heterosexual woman needs for relationship satisfaction?

Lessons from a love guru

Romance coach Matthew Hussey tutors women in the art of attracting – and keeping – a man. Can he teach Charlotte Philby anything about the opposite sex she doesn't already know?

David Letterman with Obama on his chat show

Celebrity sex scandals

This week, chat show star David Letterman shocked his audience when he revealed he had slept with female employees, and as a result had been blackmailed for 2 million dollars.

Grahame Bond rented out Halswell House to a Dutch company but failed to research their parties

It's a very nice house in the country (but not for an orgy)

Wealthy guests sipped champagne, but at midnight everything suddenly changed

'Dear John, the flock is doing fine...' The dying art of the billet-doux

A new collection of the 'Love Letters of Great Women' celebrates the dying art of the billet-doux, and offers insight into various historical figures' idea of domestic bliss

St Valentine's Day presents mutual human desire as something smug and mutually self-absorbed

Desire: What ignites our lust?

A new generation of sexologists is trying to discover what really ignites our lust. On the most passionate date in the calendar, John Walsh and Catherine Townsend uncover the truth about what turns us on

Big Think: Why some women can't orgasm

That some women can't achieve orgasm is a mystery that Rutgers psychology professor Barry Komisaruk is trying to solve. Men appear to be immune from the problem.

Robin Tyler and Diane Olson became the first same-sex couple to be married in Los Angeles

State of the union: 18,000 Californian gay couples are legally married in a state which outlaws it

Last year, California passed a controversial law allowing same-sex marriage for the first time. But now, the state's Supreme Court has overturned that right, resulting in a uniquely bizarre situation whereby 18,000 gay couples are legally married in a state which outlaws it