Tag Archive | oxford rub

Florian’s Garden- out now!

I’m proud to announce some new territory for me – collaboration with another author. Stephanie Lake and I put our creative heads together and came up with a short, very sweet Regency romance.

Florian's Garden by Stephanie Lake and Jules Radcliffe

 

Driven from his childhood home because of his gypsy blood, Florian Feakes has made a life for himself on the Melcombe estate. He contents himself with nurturing park grounds and his own small, hidden garden. Until a new groom is hired. He understands the meaning of the heated looks Everett Wedmore sends his way, but knows nothing good will come from such an association.

Everett, surprised at how difficult Florian is to find, decides to invite the handsome gardener to the local summer fair with him. Things don’t work out exactly as planned…

Florian’s Garden is a short but hot story of eight thousand words. This release contains five thousand words of bonus material, including sneak peeks from Jules Radcliffe’s Pirates of Port Royal series and Stephanie Lake’s Second Chances series.

Florian’s Garden, on sale at your favourite ebook store for only 99 cents

Ancient Greeks and the Oxford Rub

If you found my website, you probably already know that men in ancient Greece were at it with each other. But do you really know what it was all about?

The most common, and principle form of relationship for a man was a pederastic one, an older man, the erastes, with a younger man, the eromenos. These relationships could last for life, and were viewed as more important socially and career-wise than a man’s marriage to a woman. A bit like today’s private school old boys but with more shagging—at least I think the Greeks had more shagging.

Ancient Greek men did acknowledge that women could love and be loved, but this love was seen by many as an inferior as women were less developed and mature than men. Ahem. Achilles, mature? Achaean Psycho if you ask me. Not to mention Prince Pouty. But I digress.

Pederasty  was as much about furthering the education of a younger man as it was about sex. But being who I am, the sex is the bit that interests me! So what did they do? Anal and oral sex were seen as shameful, reserved for slaves or prostitutes. (There was even a law in Athens that declared a man who had allowed himself to be penetrated could not be a citizen—and neither could a woman.)

The customary form of sex between two lovers was intercrural, which is a form of frottage involving one’s beloved’s thighs. (AKA Princeton style, the Oxford rub, and the Ivy League rub for reasons which I think are obvious. Snark.) There are even poems to the beauty of a lover’s thighs—how romantic were those Athenians? A lover has told me how beautiful my inner thighs are, but I’m yet to see a poem…

Intercrural

Zephyrus and Hyacinthos rubbing one out on each other

Of course, there’s nothing that says it has to be two men. Those among you in a hetero relationship/liaison/one night of luurve could try it with your lady friend. The important thing is that your partner, whoever he or she is, doesn’t object to having their bits covered in jizz at the end (or you could use a condom but that does sound dull).

Alexander the Great did it, Oscar Wilde supposedly preferred it to oral, and even Abraham Lincoln seems to have tried it. Not that the latter two would particularly get me in the mood, but how about Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas instead…

Bosie and Francis Douglas

Bosie Douglas with his brother Francis. I’d rub his thighs any old day….

Not being a boy, I’ve never been the “on top” person myself, but I’m told it’s totally hot. So come on lads, get your Greek on and try a bit of intercrural!

Disclaimer: I could go into more detail about homosociality, cultural motivations, the enduring nature of the erastos/eromenes relationship across cultures and eras, and the varying status of women in Ancient Greek cultures, but hey, I’m done with uni. I just want to talk about the sex now.