Sex can seem like a house of horrors - full of monsters and potential pitfalls. We often live with fear, shame and frustration when it comes to our own sexuality, and with judgement when it comes to others’. Sex advice manuals, debates over sex work and stories of sexual ‘dysfunction’ add to our anxiety.

With compassion, humour, erudition and a touch of the erotic, Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele shine a light through the darkness and unmask the monsters in this illustrated guide. From sexual identities to having sex, to desire, consent and relationships, we’ll explore the invention of sex as we know it and imagine sex as it could be. Along the way, we’ll move past thinking of sex as meaning just one thing, defined by the genders of those doing it, instead making space for lots of different types of attraction, desire, relationship and act.