Writing and reading sex is that it’s an act of creative desire – any story that centres female desire, and boosts the erotic imagination, is worth telling
October 27, 2023 2:27 pm(Updated 2:50 pm)
When I was a teenager, I turned to Jilly Cooper for my sex education. At school, we were taught the basics about our bodies. But it was Cooper’s characters who showed me how sexual desire really felt. Most importantly, her explicit scenes put women front and centre. It was all about what women wanted, and how they felt. In the 1980s, beloved bonkbusters Riders and Rivals dominated the book charts. By the time they reached me 20 years later, they had become classics – and they still felt thrilling and fun.
Cooper is the ultimate saucy storyteller, and she has inspired me to write racy novels of my own, including Insatiable and Limelight. So I was shocked to hear that Cooper, my sex scene queen, recently revealed to an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival that she’s “forgotten” how to write the scenes that made her famous – and she’s worried that she might be too old. “I’m 86 now, and I’ve forgotten how to do it,” she recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.
I love writing about sex, and reading about it. There are plenty of fantastic writers who are writing stories that sizzle. I love books by Melanie Blake, Abby Jimenez, and Akwaeke Emezi. But Cooper’s comments have made me wonder what readers want from sex on the page – and whether it’s hard to write sex when you’re 86 because there aren’t enough sexy books featuring older characters.
Cooper’s classics are filled with beautiful ingenues. In one of my favourites, Imogen, the love interest is an “older man”… of 24. I’m certain that there’s a demand for erotic fiction starring older characters, and I’m sure there are brilliant writers who are creating those stories. I wonder whether publishers are making sure that those stories are reaching the readers who need them the most. I want these books, and I suspect Jilly does, too.
The best thing about writing and reading sex is that it’s an act of creative desire. You can be completely guided by your imagination – it’s a form of escapism. The hottest stories don’t focus on the appearance of characters’ bodies. It’s all about what’s happening in their heads – which gives the reader room to come along for the ride. (Sorry.)
As a reader, I don’t care how old the character is, or how old the writer is. If I can connect with the story, a hot book is a hot book.
Writing sex scenes is challenging, because you really do have to write like no one is watching. I like to lose myself completely on the page, and pretend that no one else is going to read what I’m writing. It sounds counterintuitive, but I believe that you can only ever write sex to please one reader – yourself.
However, we fans have been waiting with bated breath for Cooper’s new novel, Tackle! I’m sure she’s conscious of the fact that generations of us have loved her books and learned from them. I wonder whether she’s a victim of her own success – being able to write a great sex scene has nothing to do with age, but it’s difficult when you’ve set a very high bar for yourself and you know that your millions of readers have great expectations.
Those of us who have been inspired by Cooper have a responsibility to maintain her legacy. Her novels taught me so much – and my erotic education is ongoing. As we get older, we hope to become more confident, and know our bodies better. There’s room for novels to reflect those positive changes.
I believe any story that centres female desire, and boosts the erotic imagination, is worth telling. I also believe it’s up to us to write stories featuring the broadest cast of characters possible, where everyone gets to have great sex – long after they have reached the grand old age of 24.
Limelight by Daisy Buchanan is published by Sphere, £16.99
