(Photo: Arnis Balcus)

According to area sexperts, London lags up to four years behind New York, which means pubic topiary, sex diarists, and speed dating are just hitting their stride. Monogamy is still the default setting for a relationship, as “Londoners hate to have that ‘Let’s be exclusive’ chat,” according to Sarah Hedley, editor of women’s sex mag Scarlet. They like to drink each other under the table when they’re “on the pull,” but Londoners claim bad sex is congenital. “Being sexually inadequate is as British as tea and crumpets,” says Working Stiff memoirist (and British expat here in New York) Grant Stoddard. “The Hugh Grant stereotype does have some truth,” agrees Emma Gold, sex writer for the Independent. “British men are more bumbling in bed. But this makes them more appealing, because bullshit is less acceptable than in New York.” “I like the guilt, repression, and tension of Britain,” says Sebastian Horsley, fired from the Observer after last year’s Easter Sunday advice column on anal sex. “Societies that groan under the tedium of convention erupt in caprice.”

Related:

• Archive: “Guides”
• Articles by Em & Lo
• Table of Contents: March 26, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!