Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me)
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
Philip Larkin’s lines from Annus Mirablis have a particular resonance for Ian McEwan’s short novel ‘On Chesil Beach’.
The year, crucially, is 1962 before the sixties began to swing and too early to resolve the predicament of Edward and Florence as the novel opens:
“They were young, educated, and both virgins on this their wedding night and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible“. Continue reading
