The Seven Ages of Love
Love: The old, old story
Should we welcome or rage against the cooling of desire? Thomas Sutcliffe reflects on love and time
From Love and Sex - a free glossy magazine with the print edition
Inside The Seven Ages of Love
The facts of life: love and age
Friday, 26 September 2008
A comprehensive study by Swedish researchers, published this summer, found that 68 per cent of married men in their seventies and 56 per cent of married women in their seventies were having sex, with almost a third of those surveyed (31 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women) having it once a week.
The seven ages of love: 30s
Friday, 26 September 2008
It's a Saturday afternoon and I've been cleaning the kitchen listening to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding out for a Hero". "Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" My lodger comes in and purses his lips, Mrs Danvers style. He's getting a little fed up of playing the gay best friend. I turn off the music with suitable shame. "You don't need a hero, Joy. You need a nice boy who wears Converse boots and listens to music," says my lodger. "Is it really that difficult?"
The seven ages of love: 20s
Friday, 26 September 2008
Rob Sharp, 28, gives his take on love and sex at his stage in life
The seven ages of love: 50s
Friday, 26 September 2008
I have been in love continuously since I was 15. I must love to be in love. Or, maybe it is still a novelty. I was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda. For us, Asian Shia Muslims, marriages were smart deals between families based on economic advantage and genetic improvement. Marrying up was a good move a dark boy getting a fair girl even better. My generation inspired by pop songs and Hollywood was the first to reject arranged marriages and go for Romance, big time.
Questionnaire: What is your 'love age'?
Friday, 26 September 2008
Are you young at heart or ancient in the ways of love? Shakespeare's seven ages of man infant, child, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon and mere oblivion were derived from the seven "planets" of medieval cosmology, each of which governed its own sphere of influence. This influence extended to affairs of the heart, so there could arguably have been seven ages of love to go alongside Shakespeare's version. Find out where you fall in the Independent Almanac of Amorousness with this simple quiz.
Love doctor: What's sex got to do with it?
Friday, 26 September 2008
Are love and sex inextricably linked? My dad was a love-and-sex man. At least I think he was. He certainly wasn't the kind of guy to say "phwooar!" (if that's how it's spelt). And he was never unfaithful to his partners. My mother, on the other hand, was a sex-without-love person. When they divorced, my father, on talking to the head of the Royal College of Art, where she worked, was asked by the principal how he could have stood all her affairs. "Oh, it wasn't affairs, it was only flirting," said my father. "Flirting?" replied the principal, his eyes bulging. "My dear man, your wife went to bed with everyone in the college, myself included!"
Sleeping around: My moment of truth happened at university
Friday, 26 September 2008
'Until the age of 19, I had never had an orgasm, but I had done some Oscar-worthy faking'
Age scene: 'The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp'
Friday, 26 September 2008
A life spent longing for a woman he will never hold for long
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