Weāre delighted to announce that @emmalouiseboynton ās debut book PLEASURE has been pre-empted by @leapbooksuk for publication this May. š
Part memoir, part cultural critique,āÆPLEASURE explores Boyntonās own journey of becoming disconnected from her body and what it took to reconnect through pleasure. Drawing on personal experience, interviews with experts and immersive research, she reveals how this rupture between self and body is not an individual failure but a systemic one ā one shaped by history, beauty culture, sexual mythology and the modern dating economy.
Interrogating the forces that teach women to mistrust their bodies, disconnect from their desires and prioritise performance over pleasure, this book offersāÆa hopeful and practical reimagining of what it means for women to reconnect to their bodies in an increasingly disconnected world and to reclaim their bodies.
PLEASURE is available to pre-order now.ā£ļøš
ITāS OFFICIAL!!! I wrote (and importantly finishedā¦!) a book and itās out on May 28th.
Itās been years in the making and has involved more hours in the library than I could possibly count, a million and one interviews, several research trips and innumerable conversations and rounds of edits with my literary agent and book editor.
If ever there was a time for earnestness it is now: I couldnāt be prouder of this piece of work. And I also couldnāt be more grateful to the team around me who made it possible. Several years ago it was an idea written out on one side of A4 which I emailed hopefully, naively, to the best literary agent I knew of (she remains the best.. she is the best) - @abigailbergstrom@bergstrom.studio šš»
Thank you so much to @bonnierbooks_uk for believing in this book, and specifically to my brilliant editor @carole.tonkinson who started the most iconic new imprint there: @leapbooksuk š. I feel so lucky to get to publish this with you and the Bonnier team @arabellawatkisspr@tamaradouthwaite@saira.nabi ā„ļø
Part memoir, part cultural critique, Pleasure offers a hopeful and practical reimagining of what it means for women to reconnect to themselves in an increasingly disconnected world ā to reclaim their bodies and their PLEASURE.
I canāt wait for you all to read it!
Have you ever had s3x not because you wanted it, but because you felt you āshouldā?
Have you ever felt like youāre watching your body from a disconnected, critical vantage point?
Have you ever felt stuck in your head, when you want to be in your body?
This book is for you.
I tried to get to know my body through the boys and men I gave it to. But in my desire to be desired, I had s3x on other peopleās terms. I did it for what it gave to others, rather than for how it felt for me. Eventually, I had to learn how to come back to my body. To stop performing pleasure for someone elseās benefit, and start experiencing it for my own.
Part memoir, part cultural investigation, Pleasure traces my journey from feeling alone in being ābrokenā in my relationship to s3x and my body, to realising my experience was far from unique.
This rupture I felt with my body wasnāt a personal failure, but systemic. The result of patriarchal conditioning, which tells women we must be desired, but not how to desire. Which convinces us that our value is tied to our fuckability and our impregnability, our youth and our beauty. What a stitch up.
So I went out in search of a deeper understanding of the forces shaping womenās pleasure. Through s3x therapy, expert interviews, four days on a pxrn set. I examined the beauty industry, pop culture, purity myths, the emotional wreckage of app-based intimacy... tracing the myriad ways in which we are taught to perform pleasure rather than feel it.
And then I mapped out a blueprint for how we can shed the shackles of shame this social conditioning creates for us. So that we can reclaim our bodies and our pleasure.
If you want to deepen your connection to your body, to intimacy, to s3x ā this book is for you.
If youāre in search of a f*cking great story - one that makes you truly FEEL - this book is for you.
Comment PLEASURE below and Iāll DM you the pre-order link. Out 28th May 2026.
I have been thinking about this so much of late. We live in a society that values women based on our youth and our beauty, our fuckability and our impregnatability. Aka according to standards set in relation to our value to MEN.
From this is spawned the idea that we diminish as seggsual beings as we get older. Like we turn 50 and our seggsuality drops off a cliff.
This is such bullshit.
I have interviewed so many incredible women over the years with S3x Talks and for my book, and what I hear time and time again is that as women our connection to seggs deepens with age.
As we get older and wiser we know our bodies better.
We know what we like and what we donāt like.
We make peace with our bodies which we grow up learning to hate.
And we (hopefully) learn to spend less time worrying about being desired and more time exploring our desires.
So donāt ever think youāre running out of time to enjoy your body and all the seggsual pleasure it has to offer.
the best is yet to come!!
Omg it feels surreal to say this but in two weeksā time Iāll be heading over to the iconic @westendlanebooks to sign and dedicate a stack of books for anyone who has pre-ordered their copy of Pleasure from them.
I would LOVE to write you a cute note in your copy of Pleasure so please pre-order your copy todayā¦ if for no other reason than to show the bookshops there truly is demand for talking and reading about FEMALE PLEASURE.
Comment pleasure below and Iāll send you the pre-order link š
If you want to write, read.
ā”ļø My new book stack for the month of May.
And my 70s suede coat of dreams to go with it.
(Clyde coat from @sezane in suede). Thank you @mathilde.rasa (*gifted). Plus @aliasenses powerhouse š¤
What are you reading this month? Aside from Pleasure of course, which is out on 28th May!
My book launch is in just under two weeks, and since Iām treating it as the equivalent to my wedding (we ought to celebrate more big, personal milestones with the same level of pomp and ceremony associated with weddings IMO) I am in full bookzilla mode: planning, plucking and pruning.
As part of this noble endeavour I went to @libertylondon yesterday evening to get a Nano Lift Collagen facial with @drdavidjack and today I woke up snatched and glowy.
It involved electrical muscle stimulation, radiofrequency energy and advanced Korean fractional laser technology. I donāt know what any of this is but I like what it did to my skin.
Highly recommend āļøāļøāļøāļøāļø
(Pr treatment)
In bed, on the tube, on a plane, while walking to a meetingā¦ Iām trying to read a book a week this year so reading whenever and wherever I can. Iām just two books behind at the moment so please send me your favourite SHORT books so I can squeeze in a few extra titles this month š„°
A few books Iāve read and loved this year ā”ļø including my own bc if ever there was a time to indulge in some serious self-promotion it is surely PUBLICATION MONTH ššš
T-minus 24 days until Pleasure is out in the world ā„ļø comment pleasure below and Iāll send you the pre-order link.
CULTURE SECTION: Pleasure: The Reclamation of My Body - Emma-Louise Boynton
What does it mean to feel at home in your own body, and what happens when that connection is lost?
In this Culture Section, writer and broadcaster Emma-Louise Boynton explores the personal and cultural forces that shape our relationship to pleasure. Her book Pleasure begins with her own experience of disconnection, when she found herself unable to access sexual pleasure or intimacy, and follows the process of finding her way back.
As the creator of Sex Talks, a live event series built around open conversations on sex and intimacy, Emma-Louise brings both a personal and cultural perspective to the subject. Through research, expert interviews and lived experience, she looks at how ideas around desirability, beauty and sexuality are formed, and how they continue to influence the way we relate to our bodies.
Moving between memoir and cultural critique, the conversation considers the wider systems at play, from inherited narratives around sex and ageing to the emotional distance created by modern dating. It is an honest and considered exploration of how disconnection is often collective rather than individual.
š Sunday 17th May
šSunday Papers Live, Clerkenwell EC1
šļø via sundaypaperslive.com
Last night I went to Write Club in search of inspiration for my next writing project. The speaker for the evening was screen-writer and actress, Naomi Sheldon, who notably adapted Michelle Francesā x2 Golden Globes nominated THE GIRLFRIEND for Amazon Prime.
She lit something in me I hadnāt realised Iād dimmed, reminding me how interconnected pleasure and creativity truly are.
Write what turns you on, I came away thinking. And promptly put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) to write my latest Substack: on pleasure and creativity.
Comment pleasure below and Iāll send you the link.
