or A Heretical History of Homo Humping

There’s something deeply alluring about the idea of "buggery" that goes far beyond the simple (but acknowledged) pleasures of anal sex. The word conjures up images of English boarding schools, naval discipline, the muffled sound of illicit sex heard through oak-panelled walls, the priest in his cassock, the prisoner in his barracks.

Buggery is a concept, a trope, a meme which goes a lot deeper than mere anal penetration, bringing together a sense of the illicit, the forbidden, the secret. Secret men’s business of a distinctly European flavour: its existence always known but never acknowledged, a private matter to be dealt with between gentlemen, and never to be spoken of in polite conversation.

In the hope of explaining the choice of buggery.org as the name and address of this website, this essay delves into the strange and at times exhilarating history of sodomitical shagging.