Censored

Endore combined violence and blasphemy in this classic of the werewolf genre. It’s hard to know whether the radical politics or freaky sex most offended the censor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America was horrified when the Kinsey report proved that women were sexually transgressive. Wallace’s book trashed Kinsey but it still too sexy for the Irish censor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is it a subversive lesbian romance or a psychological thriller? The hetronormative censor saw a dangerous text with a 'general tendency to deprave'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marie Stopes' sex manual was banned for 50 years. Her promotion of contraception was radical in 1918 but it remained too controversial for the Irish state until 1980. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Was it literature or porn? With sex on nearly every page, it wasn’t surprising this Irish novel was banned for decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A novel that explores gendered notions of sex and love with some dodgy sex metaphors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Big House novel where ordered tennis parties are subverted by fucking in the fields and bondage in the basement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From great Irish writers to sex manuals, Aoife Bhreatnach will search for smut in ten more banned books. Season two will include dodgy sex metaphors and werewolves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is so hard to find sex in a book saturated with sexual tension? Trigger-happy censors overestimated the filth in this rich and inventive novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the first books banned by the censor, this modernist classic is full of indecent and obscene ideas about sex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a saucy cover showing lots of flesh, Hitt’s book was never going to be sold in Ireland. But did the text deliver on the smutty promise of the cover art? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why would a censor in 1964 worry about a book published more than a century earlier? Perhaps a Gothic horror story featuring fornicating nuns and priests was just too much. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This classic American novel critiques marriage, gender roles and masculinity. Was it sex or reproductive choices that attracted the ire of the censor? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Censored in America and Ireland, Catch-22 is a controversial modern classic. Does the shagging and violence titillate or make a point? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forever Amber is the original bonkbuster, whose commercial success led to Peyton Place (1956) and Riders (1985). Banned in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Massachusetts as indecent, it sold millions of copies in the 1940s. Restoration England was the perfect backdrop for a lush, romantic romp but does the book deliver smut galore? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Was Jack Kerouac a pilgrim or self-obsessed misogynist? Featuring an indecent orgy in the name of religion, this book was censored in 1963. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A story of three single girls navigating the dating scene in New York was censorship-worthy literature in 1958. This 52-year-old book was rediscovered after it featured in ‘Mad Men’. It's a classic, but is it smutty? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What shenanigans did Brendan Behan get up to in prison and borstal between 1939 and 1941? He enjoyed baiting the Brits, warm cocoa, snuggly blankets and … other things. In this episode, I’ll tell you about the rude bits in a book whose banning in Ireland and Australia provoked derision. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filthy-minded historian and avid reader, Aoife Bhreatnach, searches censored books for smut, swearing and shagging. The Irish censor was infamous, banning 12,491 books and magazines between 1929 and 1998. Alongside the greats like Doris Lessing and Samuel Beckett were thousands of books, now mostly forgotten. Mediocre novels, sex manuals, true crime stories, pulp fiction, racy memoirs and queer li...