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From Professional Critics

Author of Crazy: Notes on and off the Couch (2011) (23 March 2011)

Sperm Wars is one of the most enlightening books in existence. (Dr Rob Dobrenski, Psychologist (ShrinkTalk.net)

Guardian (3 February 2011)

… Sperm Wars, the popular science moment of 1996 … ( Zoë Williams )

Epinions.com (23 January 2002)

… For me, this book ranks right up there with Darwin and Freud. It is ground-breaking in its implications on sexual morality. (Jim Etchison)

The Irish Times (Dublin) (11 March 2000)

A constant stream of surprising facts makes this an entertaining page-turner … A must for anyone who wants to understand what is really going on during sex. ( Sarah Marriott)

Sunday Times – Bookshop Pick of the Year (24 November 1996)

The best fiction I’ve read this year is the imaginary sex scenes in Robin Baker’s Sperm Wars … the most entertaining science book of the year … (Humphrey Carpenter)

Gay & Lesbian Humanist (October 1996)

This book will be a revelation to some, a delight to others and a shock to many. Its conclusions are uncomfortable and revolutionary and will be powerful ammunition against the garbage spouted by religionists on sexual topics. Although the author never mentions religious dogmas, he nevertheless destroys most of those relating to sex. For anyone involved in such debates, this book is essential reading. For anyone else it is simply compelling and fascinating. (Stephen Moreton)

Glasgow Herald (21 March 1996)

Baker … has turned the complex scientific work he did with fellow academic Bellis into Sperm Wars, an eminently readable book for sexual beings everywhere. (Jane Scott)

Sunday Mirror (18/25 February 1996)

… explosive … a sensational new book … (Anne Barrowclough)

Times (10 February 1996)

Much of the information in the first section of the book is riveting. (I had no idea that my cervix was quite so crafty or ingenious.) And the author certainly has a talent for making the mechanics of reproduction accessible; his image of the penis as a thrusting vacuum cleaner is quite unforgettable. (Ginny Dougary)

Scotsman (10 February 1996)

… it is refreshing to find a serious (book) which is also profoundly disturbing… Not since I first read Darwin have so many new and inescapably accurate propositions about sexuality, reproduction and natural selection been presented to me. I was riveted by this book, and though I hated many of the conclusions, found it the most original, if devastating tract on sex I have ever read… Again and again Baker describes intimate courtship and reproductive strategems which I recognised from my own and friends’ lives. After I finished this book I could think of nothing else for days, and began to entirely reassess my whole life as an adult male. If you read nothing else on the subject this year, read this. (Robert Carver)

Staffordshire Evening Sentinel (8 February 1996)

… a sort of scientific soap opera – which is disturbingly true to real life (Steve Tilley and Eric Snape)

Mail on Sunday (4 February 1996)

The less controversial and most fascinating part of the book, concerns what actually goes on inside our bodies before, during and after sex. Here the book is richly illuminating, giving exact but never offensive descriptions of processes of which most of us are shamefully ignorant. The (sex) acts … are described in graphic – but not pornographic – detail. (Matthew Fort)

Literary Review (February 1996)

I have read some of Dr Baker’s technical work, and his evidence is impressive. … You will enjoy the sex-scenes. … arty-farty types will be astonished to see that even scientists know which way is up. (Michael Bywater)

Harpers and Queen (February 1996)

… radical … controversial … (Jerome Burne)

Cosmopolitan Magazine (February 1996)

… a fascinating book for bedtime – or any other time … eye-opening … a worthwhile, absorbing read. (Gina Maier)

Independent on Sunday (10 December 1995)

… How fine are those glimpses of freedom when we can believe in Sperm Wars, and kid ourselves we’re winning. (Michael Bywater)

The Bookseller (27 October 1995)

An original … (Sarah Broadhurst)

From General Readers

Armstrong (30 March 2011)

A really interesting analysis of how men and women behave, and why. Although I read the book some time ago, I still think of it often, especially when watching the Jeremy Kyle Show! (Amazon.co.uk)

C. Watts “ACW” (29 December 2010)

I absolutely adore this book, it changed how I thought about sexual behavior between males and females. … I find the section where females are more likely to get pregnant through rape or another lover than through their standard partner fascinating. (Amazon.com)

Ian J. Baker (16 December 2008)

… incredibly fascinating and extremely insightful in places, and definitely worth the read. Baker tackles a lot of issues in the book which are not typical reading for most people, most notably gang rape and paedophilia, which are quite graphic, but every issue is approached logically and analysed appropriately. No judgements are cast on any of the scenarios. (Amazon.co.uk)