Insecure and socially awkward Amy Bartlett finds it hard to adjust to her first term at Dundee University. Then she meets Barbara, an older women on a...More

Charla Hathaway is one of those sex educators who treat the subject with the sort of deeply spiritual bent that could no doubt invest a trip to Primark with a sense of transcendental wonder more often associated with an audience with the Dalai Lama. (For example, in her acknowledgements she thanks her parents, describing them as 'the portal of my ecstatic being.')

If you're someone who is put off by such New Age'ish guff, give this a go in any case because beneath all that there's a number of practical touch and massage techniques designed to inject a sense of exploration and play into jaded love lives. Quiver's usual attention to detail and beautifully produced illustrations perfectly compliment a book which begins with basic breathing and relaxation exercises and then progresses to simply and plainly explaining massage techniques, designed to be woven into foreplay, for almost every part of the body. There's also a section dedicated to alone time for both men and women, as well as helpful hints on cunnilingus and some innovations in masturbation.

So even if you find a little risible the recommendation that men should solemnly ask permission to enter 'the secret garden' – most women I've ever been with would have wet themselves with laughter on hearing that – just concentrate upon Erotic Massage's common sense pointers. Your fingers will be doing the talking in next to no time.

Jack Lawrence.