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: 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: 40s

Friday, 26 September 2008

"Spring is in the air

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.

The art of love: Lucas Cranach

Friday, 26 September 2008

The ultimate makeover

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'

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!"

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

The seven ages of love: 70s

Friday, 26 September 2008

When you're in your seventies, love has a long memory; I grew up at a time when sex was secret, lives were private and your parents didn't approve. Sex before marriage was either fast and furtive, or romantically dangerous. There was no pill but no Aids either. As a young woman I knew little about my own body but plenty about my troubled emotions. As a child during the war I saw the pain of separation and loss. I grew up to the strains of "We'll Meet Again", "Some Day I'll Find You" and Snow White's "Some Day My Prince Will Come". I saw it as a search for an ideal: Mr Right. Mr Darcy. Big mistake.

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