It was in this New York that the Beat Generation was born, with students dropping out of college and experimenting with drugs, music, sex and literature in a quest to find an alternative to the rampant, materialist lifestyles that they saw growing around them.

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Mr Achebe has drawn support from the publishers and academics, who say the sex scenes are central to the book and argue the purpose of literature is to mirror life rather than set moral codes.

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Lucille Fletcher was once asked her views about sex in novels, and said that much contemporary literature was not really to her taste.

ECONOMIST: Lucille Fletcher