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Rude Britannia: One Man's Journey Around the Highways and Bi-Ways of British Sex
Tim Fountain knows more about sex than most people. His show, Sex Addict , was the target of widespread and vociferous critical media attention and led him to be labeled a pervert and a freak by much of the mainstream press. This, understandably, raised a few questions in his mind. Was his sex life really so different to the rest of Britain? Or was he just being rather more vocal about what he was up to? To find out, Tim has traveled around the UK, starting in Bradford at the site of his first 14-year-old fumble, to take the sexual temperature of our age. Visiting doll-fetishists and animal-fanciers, dogging fans and spanking enthusiasts, swingers' hotels and glory holes, Tim investigates our current attitudes on sex, peeping behind closed doors and exploring the private lives of Britons in an attempt to discover just what is going on beneath their stiff upper lips.
- GenresTravel
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2008
4 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Tim Fountain
10 books4 followersTim Fountain is an author, playwright and occasional performer. His books include the number 1 best selling ibook Rude Britannia (Weidenfeld and Nicholson), Quentin Crisp: a biography (Absolute Press) and So you want to be a playwright? (Nick Hern Books). He is currently working on his first novel.
His plays include Queen of the Nile (Hull Truck) Dandy in the Underworld (Soho Theatre) Sex Addict (Royal Court and Schaubuehne, Berlin) Resident Alien (Bush and New York Theatre Workshop, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3), Julie Burchill Is Away, Hotboi and How To Lose Friends and Alienate People (Soho Theatre) featuring such actors as Jack Davenport, Bette Bourne, Jackie Clune, and Con O Neil. He has also written for television and radio and was a principal writer on Bob and Margaret (Channel Four/Comedy Central, USA).
Tim has also written journalism for amongst others the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, New Statesman and Attitude magazine.
An regular broadcaster Tim has appeared on Newsnight, Women’s Hour, Saturday Review and Loose Ends on BBC Radio Four and Weekender on BBC Radio 2. He has also presented a documentary about the death of Quentin Crisp for Channel Four and featured in the BBC 2 documentaries Circumcise Me and Am I Normal?
Tim is also a teacher of playwriting and has tutored for numerous organizations including The Central School of Speech and Drama, The Arvon Foundation and MIT in the USA. He was Literary Manager of the Bush Theatre from 1997 - 2001 and a lecturer in creative writing at Strathclyde University from 2006-2009.
His plays include Queen of the Nile (Hull Truck) Dandy in the Underworld (Soho Theatre) Sex Addict (Royal Court and Schaubuehne, Berlin) Resident Alien (Bush and New York Theatre Workshop, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3), Julie Burchill Is Away, Hotboi and How To Lose Friends and Alienate People (Soho Theatre) featuring such actors as Jack Davenport, Bette Bourne, Jackie Clune, and Con O Neil. He has also written for television and radio and was a principal writer on Bob and Margaret (Channel Four/Comedy Central, USA).
Tim has also written journalism for amongst others the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, New Statesman and Attitude magazine.
An regular broadcaster Tim has appeared on Newsnight, Women’s Hour, Saturday Review and Loose Ends on BBC Radio Four and Weekender on BBC Radio 2. He has also presented a documentary about the death of Quentin Crisp for Channel Four and featured in the BBC 2 documentaries Circumcise Me and Am I Normal?
Tim is also a teacher of playwriting and has tutored for numerous organizations including The Central School of Speech and Drama, The Arvon Foundation and MIT in the USA. He was Literary Manager of the Bush Theatre from 1997 - 2001 and a lecturer in creative writing at Strathclyde University from 2006-2009.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 28, 2013
Download this book for free off iTunes a little while ago - I was feeling a little homesick and didn't read the blurb. Needless to say, once I actually sat down to read it, I was a little surprised, however I did find the book rather enjoyable. It brought back a lot of memories for me - of Britain and it's people, not of sex in toilets - and I found myself chucking aloud at several of the situations Mr. Fountain observed. Obviously this is not for the faint of heart, but it is well written, thought provoking, and an entertaining way to pass a lunch break.
August 29, 2013
Writing - ok, structure - ok, interest level - unputdownable. Shock, disgust, wide eyed bewilderment, all natural reactions.
The author is extremely candid and the topics researched not for the prudish. I have learned a lot, mainly I have no idea what I have not been doing all these years!
Not necessarily enjoyable, car crash reading perhaps. Horrified fascination.
The author is extremely candid and the topics researched not for the prudish. I have learned a lot, mainly I have no idea what I have not been doing all these years!
Not necessarily enjoyable, car crash reading perhaps. Horrified fascination.
December 30, 2024
I was gifted this book about 15 years ago by a friend who knows the author and this is probably my 6th or 7th read through of it, but my first since perhaps 2016. Still find it an excellent read, although it does now feel rather dated - but it's a fascinating snapshot of sexual Britain in the late 00s.
October 9, 2023
Tim Fountain set out here to explore Britain’s sexual highways and byways, to explore the fetish clubs, swingers’ clubs, dogging sites and much, much more. He didn’t want to just observe but to explore and experience the sexual underbelly of Britain, the side of Britain that isn’t celebrated in the guide books, well most of them. The result is this book, but it’s more than just a chronical through one man’s sexual adventure.
What lifts this book is Fountain’s style and perspective. He doesn’t make fun of or caricature the people he is writing about, he tries to get to know them instead, even when those people are caricaturing themselves. His descriptions aren’t salacious or voyeuristic, this isn’t soft porn masquerading as serious writing. Fountain’s writing does have a strong feel of place, and many of these places are sadly seedy. So many of these clubs are housed in rundown places, as if the venue reflects the embarrassment the participants feel. Fountain’s feeling for place is at its best with his description of a heterosexual brothel, housed on a rundown Manchester industrial estate.
Fountain wrote this book after writing and performing his one-man play Sex Addict. He had come out about having sex with over 5,000 people and been labelled a pervert by the mainstream media for that. This book was written after that and seems to be his way of exploring what is labelled “abnormal” by the same mainstream media. But this book is as much about Fountain as those he’s writing about and this adds to the satisfaction of this read. Throughout the book he is emailing and flirting with a man called Richard, who lives in Glasgow. They met after Richard saw a production of Fountain’s play. This anchors the book in Fountain’s own story.
This book was written in 2008, before dating apps, but Fountain charts how much dating and hooking-up had already moved online. So much of this book wouldn’t have been possible without the internet, Fountain wouldn’t have found a fraction of these different groups without it, he made so many contacts via the internet and forums on his laptop.
Fountain’s prose and insights lift this book into the fascinating read that it is. This isn’t a smut book, as its title and cover might suggest, but a fascinating journey through a side of British society that we don’t talk about, much. Unfortunately, and not by Fountain’s choice, many of his trips through this world are on the seedy side, though he never openly laughs at them.
What lifts this book is Fountain’s style and perspective. He doesn’t make fun of or caricature the people he is writing about, he tries to get to know them instead, even when those people are caricaturing themselves. His descriptions aren’t salacious or voyeuristic, this isn’t soft porn masquerading as serious writing. Fountain’s writing does have a strong feel of place, and many of these places are sadly seedy. So many of these clubs are housed in rundown places, as if the venue reflects the embarrassment the participants feel. Fountain’s feeling for place is at its best with his description of a heterosexual brothel, housed on a rundown Manchester industrial estate.
Fountain wrote this book after writing and performing his one-man play Sex Addict. He had come out about having sex with over 5,000 people and been labelled a pervert by the mainstream media for that. This book was written after that and seems to be his way of exploring what is labelled “abnormal” by the same mainstream media. But this book is as much about Fountain as those he’s writing about and this adds to the satisfaction of this read. Throughout the book he is emailing and flirting with a man called Richard, who lives in Glasgow. They met after Richard saw a production of Fountain’s play. This anchors the book in Fountain’s own story.
This book was written in 2008, before dating apps, but Fountain charts how much dating and hooking-up had already moved online. So much of this book wouldn’t have been possible without the internet, Fountain wouldn’t have found a fraction of these different groups without it, he made so many contacts via the internet and forums on his laptop.
Fountain’s prose and insights lift this book into the fascinating read that it is. This isn’t a smut book, as its title and cover might suggest, but a fascinating journey through a side of British society that we don’t talk about, much. Unfortunately, and not by Fountain’s choice, many of his trips through this world are on the seedy side, though he never openly laughs at them.
December 29, 2012
I'm giving this four stars, because as much as this book made me laugh, it's missing a lot of the varied fetishes out there in the British Isles, so there's a lot missing in my opinion. I also really could have done without chapter eight, being that I don't think it should have had any place in the book. I'm all for opening people's eyes to the fetish world and sexuality choices, but I'm not into highlighting things involving bestiality, aside from to report it to the authorities.
So yes, good read, but I think it could do with a rehaul.
So yes, good read, but I think it could do with a rehaul.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2012
A witty insight into the sexual exploits and secrets of the British. Enjoyable memoir of his own and other experiences. Well written without bias or prejudice toward any of the "characters" a interesting insight into what goes on behind closed (and some not so closed) doors
November 30, 2012
I really enjoyed this. Very naughty, smutty, snorty. And (at the time of writing) free on Kindle too. Recommended.
December 3, 2012
Didn't know what to expect and wasn't really surprised by anything I read other than the sentimentality throughout the book. Did enjoy the story about the Abcat cinema.
July 11, 2013
Interesting and at times amusing but no great insight gained.
April 19, 2017
I can't remember when I downloaded this book, but it looked like it would be entertaining reading. I don't know what I expected to find, but overall I came away from it feeling that Tim Fountain had found an overall very lacklustre British sexual culture. His tour around swingers clubs and massage parlours just seemed to leave me with a run-down rather seedy feeling. Was I expecting something more glamorous, something more steamy with a Hollywood treatment, maybe.
As for the zoophilia, the idea that people he interviewed thought that the animals consent, is frankly laughable and smacks of special pleading. For the other fetishes and games he investigated, I was interested to read about them, but I was reminded in more than one place of some of the comedy sexual situations to be found in a Tom Sharpe novel.
I enjoyed reading the book, for all that some of the chapters seemed bizarre seen from my more orthodox world, he has written it well and with sympathy to most of the characters he met. I would say this is probably not the book to read if you are the least bit prudish, but I thought it was worth the time out to read.
As for the zoophilia, the idea that people he interviewed thought that the animals consent, is frankly laughable and smacks of special pleading. For the other fetishes and games he investigated, I was interested to read about them, but I was reminded in more than one place of some of the comedy sexual situations to be found in a Tom Sharpe novel.
I enjoyed reading the book, for all that some of the chapters seemed bizarre seen from my more orthodox world, he has written it well and with sympathy to most of the characters he met. I would say this is probably not the book to read if you are the least bit prudish, but I thought it was worth the time out to read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews