Letter: Victorian sex

Sally Cline's remark that "in Victorian times, women were regarded as deviant if they enjoyed sex" ("The joy of not having sex", Real Life, 26 October) is pure fiction. Michael Mason in his book, The Making of Victorian Sexuality, has shown that most Victorians - including most medics - believed a woman could not become pregnant without having an orgasm. Must we conclude that all those mothers of largefamilies, from the Queen down, regarded themselves as perverts?

Clive Wilmer

Cambridge