Preposterously long (962 pages) and very naughty, Forever Amber is set in Restoration London, land of pox and periwigs. Amber St Clare, a beautiful country girl, loses her virginity to a nobleman, Lord Carlton, and goes to London as his mistress. When he departs overseas, she marries a physically hideous conman to avoid her baby being branded a bastard. Thrown into debtors' prison at Newgate, she escapes with the help of a highwayman. There follows a string of lovers until she marries an earl and, eventually, becomes the mistress of Charles II. Kathleen Winsor's book caused much outrage; it was banned in Boston and burned on the streets. But it sold 100,000 copies in its first week and can justifiably lay claim to being, in bonkbuster terms, the mother of them all.
From kings' mistresses to lusty housewives and rutting polo players, there's wicked entertainment between the covers