Male homosexuals tend, therefore, to have their own contact networks, websites and clubs. For all that, male homosexual activity (usually restricted to oral and caressing) is not unknown in the melee of an orgy, and the true homophobic is well advised to stay away.

One way or another, I seem to be further than ever from a clear and concise definition of our hobby. As well attempt to define, say, ‘liberal’ or ‘hippy’, both words which play some part in our recent ancestry.

It is social activity which freely admits of (but does not require) sex which, if it happens, is smiled upon and approved by the partners of those engaged. It is largely an activity of the otherwise monogamous and law-abiding.

Sometimes, despairing of explaining to vanillas why I enjoy my hobby, I shrug and resort to, “Well, maybe I just have more bonobo genes where you are all chimp.”

Bonobos are, with chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal world. Whereas chimpanzees spend their lives in screeching and squabbling, murder one another and pair-bond (which does not preclude flagrant infidelity), bonobos are pensive, socially cooperative and peaceable, and engage in routine recreational sex as a means of greeting and bonding and simply as a leisure activity.

Will the moralist then declare the chimp superior to, or ‘better than’ the bonobo?

And maybe after all, my glib explanation has some foundation in fact. Could there be strings of genetic information common to bonobos in the DNA of our disapproving chimp brethren?