Many books promise sex on the front cover but which ones are really dirty? Ive consulted the blacklist compiled by the Irish censors, who banned thousands of books for smut, swearing and shagging.
The moral effect of literary sex was so incendiary that the government oversaw a strict censorship regime to control it. In order to save the nation from mass perversion, the censors banned the greatest writers of the 20th century as well as sex manuals and pulp fiction. From 1930 to 1967, the harshest censorship system in the Anglophone world thrived in Ireland. So many literary greats were banned that the blacklist was nicknamed Everymans Guide to the Classics.
Rude books are a perfect saucy stocking-filler for anyone who loves mugs with smutty jokes or nudey fireman calendars
This is a top 10 list of the best banned literary filth, from classic novels to bestselling popular fiction. Rude books are a perfect saucy stocking-filler for anyone who loves mugs with smutty jokes or nudey fireman calendars.
Since starting Censored, a podcast about books banned in Ireland, Ive read a lot of so-called dirty books from the blacklist. Too many were disappointingly tame, but others explore sex and gender identity in interesting ways. Ive done you the favour of reading and rating them so you can enjoy the best smut over the festive season. Best of all, these naughty books can be read anywhere because the nice covers wont give away your dirty secret. Granny will never know your filthy reading habits as you nibble Christmas chocolates. If you havent been able to get the ride this pandemic, at least you can read about it.
John Broderick: The Pilgrimage Lilliput Press, 1961
It opens with Julia, respectably dressed as the dutiful, obedient wife of an invalid, offering tea to the local priest. But she is not wearing knickers as she is planning a quickie with her husbands nephew. Broderick also explores Dublins underground gay scene and how queer men lived double lives. The pragmatic hypocrisy of the books characters regarding faith and morality is wonderfully audacious. A short, punchy book that interrogates the lies around sexual identity in provincial Ireland.
