The Independent

If you live in Soho, you'll see why the sex trade flourishes

Ed Howker: Men my age, confused about their role, use prostitutes most
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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

Modern sex: Logging on to the new revolution

In the 21st century, technology is allowing people to express their desires and fulfil their fantasies in ways never before possible – and all at the touch of a button. Catherine Townsend logs on to the new sexual revolution

Tears without end

Heartbreak has been the subject of so many awful songs that it's tempting to take it lightly. Then, suddenly, it happens to you. Cole Moreton reflects on the appalling human capacity for feeling loss, romantic or otherwise

Sleeping Around: Eternal Sunshine?

Apparently, scientists may soon be able to erase fear and trauma from patients' minds. The technology is meant to help people cure phobias such as a fear of spiders, but my mind immediately turned to wiping out of the pain of failed relationships, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'-style.

What men don't get about women

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. No woman, no cry. A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. The only thing that the genders agree on, it seems, is that the two of them have little in common. Here, we aim to promote understanding between the two halves of the human species, with two explanatory essays by a representative of each. Ladies first...

Catherine Townsend: Ramsay Embroiled in Affair

After reading about Gordon Ramsay's alleged seven-year affair in the News of the World, I couldn't help wondering why, in this day and age, anyone would choose to base their business around a family man image?

Snap happy: photographers at one of a growing number of Erotica shows swarm around a performer

Naughty but ever so nice

The rest of the economy may be struggling, but the erotica industry is booming – especially among the respectable middle classes. John Walsh considers our national obsession with spicing up our sex lives

Looking for Mr Right: Ariane Sherine fears that her quest for romantic happiness has been hampered by impossibly high expectations

The trouble with fairy-tales

Like most girls of her age, Ariane Sherine believed in romance. She thought she had only to find the right person to find perfect passion and happiness. Then, slowly and painfully, she discovered the truth...

Surely not! German Chancellor Angela Merkel sneezing as she sits between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Soviet leader in 2007 in Wiesbaden

A revealing sneeze?

A cold? No, sneezing could mean someone is thinking lurid thoughts about sex, say scientists.

Sleeping Around: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux

Jonathan Ross has revealed that his first sexual experience was with a vacuum cleaner - and he must have been pretty attached, because he refers to the Hoover he mounted as a 'she'.

Top tips for great wedding photos

Make the most of your wedding photographerThis is a day that will never be repeated, so you need someone who can capture the best moments without cutting anyone's head off or giving you 'red eye'. Wedding experts Confetti.co.uk offer a few extra tips for getting what you want from your pictures.