Almost the last book that The Erotic Print Society published was a sex manual with a difference, written and illustrated by Lynn Paula Russell. Titled Sexcitement, it covers a wide range of fetish and BDSM practices designed, as she puts it, to add erotic charge to sexual intimacy. Sexcitement wasn’t the first EPS title illustrated by Russell; she had illustrated David Delvin’s Sex Play a year earlier, but it was the first (and only) time she wrote about such activities herself.

We include it here both because it shows Lynn Paula Russell as artist, author and practitioner, and because it is a good example of the detailed colour illustrations she was producing in the early 2000s.

Here is her description of the contents of the book: ‘Why do some people get an erotic charge out of actions that would never occur to us as pleasurable at all? Being tied naked to a whipping stool in a dungeon while your ‘mistress’ flogs you; lying in a bath while someone urinates on you; anal sex with a strap-on dildo – there’s always something remaining outside our range of sexual tastes. However much some of these activities may secretly intrigue us, we may never have had the courage to mention them to our partner or indulge in them. Sexual information is widespread nowadays, but even so there are still pockets of ignorance around certain taboo subjects unless you can find them tucked away in specialist magazines. While writing and compiling Sexcitement I felt as if I were chatting to the readers in an unusually intimate way, sharing with them many personal details I would not normally talk about, even with close friends. I pictured a sympathetic couple in a secure, long-term relationship, perhaps toying with the idea of adding a little spice to their sex lives. Not wishing to stray too far from the norm, they might want to understand more about sexual variations so that they could decide for themselves how far they wished to go. And above all, they wished to maintain that much cherished erotic spark and keep their relationship alive and thriving. In Sexcitement I try to describe a wide variety of erotic activities step by step, combining highly personal accounts and insights with useful information and suggestions. No one will use the word ‘perversion’ in this book, for we are looking at the full range of erotic pleasures without prejudice. Whatever is done in the security of a loving relationship cannot be either obscene or perverted, and will not put you at risk if you are rigorously aware of each other’s health and safety.’