John Cleland was born in England in 1710 into a family with literary connections: his father, a civil servant, friends with Alexander Pope - the second most-quoted-writer in “The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations”.

Yet John Cleland wound up in prison writing and re-editing his manuscript, for what became, FANNY HILL. The notorious oft-banned novel famed for its colorful descriptions of massive appendages.

Satirist Jonathan Swift is best known for his blockbuster novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, yet Swift also wrote scatological lewd poems - one of which you’ll hear today.

You'll also discover more about Jonathan Swift's life: prior to him ascending church ranks to become Dean of Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, some scholars speculate that Jonathan Swift's wet-nurse, when he was a babe, kidnapped him.

John Donne and Robert Herrick, English clerics born in the late 1500s, were renowned for their rude poetry.

John Donne, prior to becoming Dean of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, was a former gentleman privateer who attempted to seize gold held within the bowels of Spanish galleons at sea.

Robert Herrick, meanwhile, from his pretty parish in Devon loved nothing more than writing odes to women’s breasts before re-dipping his inky quill into his pot to pen another sermon.