Granta issue 110: Sex

The Granta Sex issue with its beautiful and funny cover, accompanying yearning films and impressive array of contributors from as far afield as Adam Foulds and Dave Eggers (as well as an online exclusive piece from Booktrust writer-in-residence Evie Wyld) is another instalment in the magazine's well-stocked rolodex of exciting scribes.

The short stories, though loosely tagged 'sex' include an extract from the brilliant Tom Mccarthy's novel- though what's sexy about the strange trip to the masseuse I'm not sure- and Rupert Thompson's days as a bookseller from his new memoir. There's not much titillation here, it's all cerebral, and slightly seedy. Adam Foulds manages to write obsession and confliction well with his portrayal of a priest in love with someone he shouldn't be.

It's left to Jeanette Winterson and her rather debauched portrayal of sex amongst the Greek gods to bring things to a climax, as it were. The book should have been called 'obsession' that there's enough in here to plough through, though it's not the best place to come if you're looking for things undulating and thrusting. Instead, our lusts and obsessions take on a world-weary and cynical stance, and that, it would seem to these writers, is perhaps the sexiest thing of all.