George RR Martin: Game of Thrones fans are demanding more explicit male sex scenes

Game of Thrones fans have been begging for some full-throttle male sex scenes, author George R R Martin has said, as he reveals that most of those requests come from women.

The fantasy novelist was speaking to a sold-out crowd at the Edinburgh International Literary Festival yesterday, when he addressed numerous questions.

He was asked why the books in his A Song of Ice and Fire series only touches on the subject of gay sex when the television adaptation is saturated with nudity.

Martin explained that as none of the viewpoints in the early novel were from a gay character’s perspective, there were no frank gay love scenes. However, “television doesn’t have those limitation.”

“I've had letters from fans who want me to present particularly an explicit male sex scene – most of the letters come from women,” he said, according to The Guardian.

But he said he would only inset such storylines and scenes into his future instalments if the plot allows for it.

The final two books of the seven-volume series are still forthcoming.

“I'm not going to do it just for the sake of doing it. If the plot lends itself to that, if one of my viewpoint characters is in a situation, then I'm not going to shy away from it, but you can't just insert things because everyone wants to see them.

“It is not a democracy. If it was a democracy, then Joffrey [once ruler of the Seven Kingdoms] would have died much earlier than he did,” he added.

Martin has previously defended the inclusion of graphic sexual violence in Game of Thrones, saying that it would be “fundamentally false and dishonest” not to include it.

He told the New York Times in May: “An artist has an obligation to tell the truth. My novels are epic fantasy, but they are inspired by and grounded in history.”

“Rape and violence have been a party of every war fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day.”

The author is scheduled to do a one-day Q&A with fans in London on 19 August, in a yet-to-be-announced venue.