Share your favourite fictional sex scenes from books for your chance to win a copy of HAUSFRAU plus £100 worth of luxury chocolate

[UrsulaMumsnet]

Anna was a good wife, mostly...

Anna Benz, an American in her late-thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno - a banker - and their three young children, in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich.

Though she leads a comfortable life, she is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with Bruno, or even her own feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises her.

Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back...

Anna Karenina goes Fifty Shades with a side of Madame Bovary; Hausfrau is the exceptional, haunting, and elegant debut novel from the prize-winning American poet, Jill Alexander Essbaum.

Share your favourite sex scenes from books for your chance to win a copy of Hausfrau plus a huge box of luxury chocolates worth £100!

This discussion is sponsored by Picador and will close on 18 April.

Bridget Jones with her massive knickers!

Some of the stories in Anais Nin's Delta of Venus have really stayed with me - especially Leila and Bijou's adventure in the wood with the horses, and their threesome with Elena. Nin's writing is sensual and beautiful.

"Hatless, hair flying, they entered her darkened apartment, where the blinds were drawn against the summer heat. Leila led Elena by the hand to her bedroom and they fell on the luxuriant bed together. Silk again, silk under the fingers, silk between the legs, silky shoulders, neck, hair. Lips of silk trembling under the fingers."

Forever by Judy Blume - sweet and tender but oh so intense, perfectly capturing their teenage relationship.

I thought the sex scene from Birdsong was amazing when I read it for the first time (c1993). I held it in my mind (without remembering details) as the most wonderful erotic thing. Now I can't read it again in case it disappoints.

Sex in books...oh no, cant bear it. I guess if pushed I would go for something high brow, if dodgy. Marquis Dr Sade, Jukiette, Sachet Masoch...venus in furs, or george Bataille and his solar anus!

Tag, my autocorrect messed that all up. Sorry.

A friend bought me "The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen" which was quite amusing.

There's a sex scene in the Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb which was pretty steamy. I don't have the book to quote it sadly but it gives me shivers.

My favourite sex scenes have all been written as part of fan fiction (see Ross Poldark/Demelza, Ranger/Stephanie Plum) but I quite liked Charlaine Harris' sex scenes between Eric and Sookie in the earlier Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) books.

“Eric,” I said, trying to position myself underneath him. “Now.”
He said, “Oh, yes.” He slid inside as if he’d never been gone, as if we’d made love every night for the past year.
“This is best,” he whispered, and his voice had that accent I caught occasionally, that hint of a time and place that were so far distant I could not imagine them.
“This is best ,” he said again. “This is right .”

Loula I came on to say Eric and Sookie! Loved any passage that had the two of them in it.

Peter and Harriet's honeymoon night in Busman's Honeymoon. Not at all explicit but you know exactly what's going on

Flowers in the attic, so wrong but well written.

Good author and I love his books, but Dean Koontz, I read Darkfall last week and laughed out loud to "he spurted in her velvety recess". :)

I took Judy Blume's Forever out of the library so many times, the staff reported it to my mum!

I don't really read books with sex scenes in - Terry Pratchett's "After a short while, the bedsprings went 'gloing'" is a bit of a subtle masterpiece and about as raunchy as it normally gets.

A little sex has found its way onto my bookshelves though: the most erotic thing I've read is a short story by the incredibly talented and sadly now deceased Tanith Lee, "Wolfed," from an anthology called "Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers." Goodness me, that was a tantalising eye-opener [goes pink] [fans self].

The morse code vaginal squeezage in Iain Banks' The Crow Road is pretty hawt. Made an impression on the 20-year-old me and I often think about it if the situation is right

Ah yes, Eric with amnesia and sookie. Lovely.

Also fond memories of lace, jilly copper and Anais Nin

I don't really tend to read books with many sex scenes in - but I thought the part in "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" where Arthur & Fenchurch flew over London was quite sweet. Not graphic but very clear what was going on.

I read all the Jilly Coopers as a teenager and loved them. Recently reread Riders and was shocked to realise they all forced Helen into the foursome in Kenya. I went right off Rupert after that, horrible man.

I can't believe there's only been one mention of that poor goldfish in Lace so far in this thread! That book did the rounds of my (girls only) class for much of year 8! I do remember working my way through my aunts' collection of Harold Robbins when I was 14 or 15 and being quite shocked.

I think there's quite a difference between memorable sex in books and good sex in books. Intentionally 'sexy' writing normally leaves me squirming, and not in a good way, whilst occasionally unexpected or tender moments that are well observed or phrased can have quite an impact.

The library scene in Atonement is by far the most beautifully written and yet erotic sex scene I've ever read. Too long to post here, especially as the entire first part of the book slowly, slowly builds towards it, and earlier scenes like the fountain and, especially, the note (him writing it and her reading it) play a key part. The overall effect is mesmerising. I must have read it dozens of times (I just did again) and it always leaves me slightly dazed and stunned. And very sad for what comes later. Amazing book - one of my all-time favourites.

Just finished reading The Captive Queen where Queen Eleanor and King Henry look forward to 'glorious bedsports' which made me and dh chuckle!

Jackie Collins any of the sex scenes!

Mills & Boon come up with some classics!

The one that sticks in my mind though is from my teenage days - 'Forever' by Judy Blume.

Jon Snow and Ygritte in the cave. I don't appreciate many of George Martins sex scenes but that is probably one of the few nice ones.