Who Pushed Paula

If you like your erotica with all the tropes.

For a while there was a rumour that Olympia Press books published under the name ‘Akbar del Piombo’ were written by William Burroughs – whose Naked Lunch had also come out with the notorious press – a mix-up that infuriated the real writer behind the pseudonym. Like Anaïs Nin before him, artist Norman Rubington turned to writing pornography to support his creative life in Paris. Who Pushed Paula? – his first attempt – is a playful send-up of erotic tropes: a baron, his castle, and a series of absurd sexual encounters.

“One of the most exquisite of Akbar del Piombo's exercises in erotic burlesque... more lustful dukes, more lurid barons, more voluptuous nuns possessed by the fantastic demons of the flesh.”

The book’s first edition is one of the classic green Traveller’s Companions, but we love this 1971 edition, complete with its cult ‘O’ cover.