Yes, that Chris Foss was one of the illustrators.
“We were a bit nervous when we took this on,” remembers one of the book’s illustrators, Chris Foss.
“The publisher had to write a contract which confirmed that they would pay our defence if some old fart decided to make an issue out of it.”
How the Joy of Sex was illustrated - BBC News
He is best known for his science fiction book covers and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of The Joy of Sex.
This is the most Usborne thing I have ever seen.
“Cover up those table legs, mother, they’re inflaming my sexual ardour.”
He also painted some very sexy spaceships.
And a good cover for Ballard’s Crash.
Maybe that’s because we don’t treat them as such?
Uhhh … why on the main mobile site is the article next to a picture of two guys taking liberties with a horse? Pretty sure no human babies have been made that way.
Many sperm all try to infiltrate the outer hull of the egg simultaneously. Usually, once one has managed to breach, shields go to full power, and further penetration is prevented
This is really sweet. I would completely show this to my kindergartner (if he weren’t now a teen and a bit beyond this). I like the way it continues to stress how they love each other and have hearts on their car. Ah the 70’s!
That is basically pornography for Thomas the Tank Engine fetishists.
I love the finale.
So true. The age of this kid surprised me…
I have a vague memory that I may once have sent @thomdunn a Christmas card with that image or a very similar one on it (it’s a detail from a frieze on a Chandela temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India). That doesn’t entirely explain what it’s doing as a poster image for this article, but evidently it, uh, made an impression.
Well everything about that seems just tickety-boo to me. 
Except that it’s lady’s - with an effing apostrophe, idiots!
So that’s why we ended up with this headline!
(you’re right, of course)
It occurs to me that “accurate” sex education texts might be just the thing for driving evangelical congress critters out of Capitol Hill. Just hold them out in front of you like a crucifix.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much more conservative the US is about certain topics than in the 70s! My toddler loves What Makes a Baby, which is beautifully illustrated, not graphic, and inclusive of all families (our kids were IVF conceptions).
In the 60s we had sex ed, but they left out the part about inserting the penis into the vagina.
This is what you get when you don’t live in a country founded by Puritans…honest, nitty gritty discussion of how things really work.
