"They are part of English cinema history, but many of them are not erotic at all - they are stupid. We went from surreptitious glimpses of naked bodies in National Geographic magazines and naturist films like Naked as Nature Intended to films like the seminal Confessions series, starring Robin Askwith as the naughty window-cleaner, etc etc. "They are part of English cinema history, but many of them are not erotic at all - they are stupid. For some reason, English erotica can't function unless it resembles a raunchy Carry-On film where it's terribly funny when knickers fall down.

The Italians or the French would set it up to be sexy, not funny. That's why `continental films' used to be so much in demand - for ages you couldn't mention the words `Swedish' or `au-pair' without nudging and winking."So if one generation's porn is the next generation's literary classic, what contemporary material will remain in the archives? Perhaps not very much. We went from surreptitious glimpses of naked bodies in National Geographic magazines and naturist films like Naked as Nature Intended to films like the seminal Confessions series, starring Robin Askwith as the naughty window-cleaner, etc etc. One of his projects is reissuing Sixties and Seventies "X" rated films. "As soon as there is a new medium, pornography exploits it," explains Michael Goss. "It was similar with the moving film, and now with the Internet."Porn came to the masses in the Fifties under the guise of "photography" magazines, "naturist" publications, and "informative" medical films. Those who prefer books tend to be well- spoken and well-educated.

But top-shelf mags and videos appeal to the lowest common denominator." According to Nigel Wingrove, director of video distribution company Redemption, part of the problem may be that the British have never taken porn seriously enough. But it was in the Sixties, after the obscenity trials of Oz magazine and novels like Last Exit to Brooklyn and Lady Chatterley's Lover, that the trickle became a flood Sadly, says Michael Goss, quantity didn't mean quality "There are two levels of consumer. It was from around 1830 that most of the porn that is any good starts to appear. In those days it was a very gentlemanly pursuit - most people were illiterate, so it was written, published and distributed by the aristocracy. I think most gentlemen had a locked cabinet of beautiful leather-bound volumes," he says nostalgically.

His dream find would be an intact personal library with an aristocratic crest stamped in each volume.The invention of photography meant that elegant volumes illustrated with fine line drawings were abandoned in favour of saucy photos of ladies in their undies caught all unawares. Look at Lady Chatterley's Lover, for example, which is now considered a literary classic. Porn was first published for profit around the turn of the 18th century - novels, stories and pamphlets. "You could say that one of the earliest pornographers was the Earl of Rochester, during the Restoration - though one generation's pornography is another generation's literature. No one understands it."Raunchy junketings that appear to have been muttered into a crackly dictaphone, then transcribed by someone whose first language is Serbo-Croat are a far cry, however, from porn's rather more elegant origins.Michael Goss of Delectus is a dealer and publisher of "quality erotic literature" "Porn has been around for centuries," he says. "I'm fascinated by why people consume this low standard stuff when much higher standard material is available."Do people actually wade through all that turgid prose? "Yes, and they don't mind how bad it is That's what we're used to and that's how we like it. I don't know why - reviewers of my book pointed out that although it was a good factual history, it didn't explain why people liked what they do And I concur.

It's typically British to feature readers' wives - in no other country do you find anything like that."In "speciality" publications, the same elderly "schoolgirls" appear, re-vamped as naughty maidservants and then again as naughty secretaries, all being spanked over and over again in the same issue. The men, not having to take all their clothes off, are easier to disguise: a toupe and a different shirt and hey presto! the naughty boss becomes a naughty teacher, and so on and so on.Apparently, though, dismal standards are exactly what the British porn connoisseur is after. "British porn is the lowest of the low," says David McGillivray. "Women in porn mags are fantasy figures, but we don't like the Californian chocolate box images. Pamela Anderson is popular, but she's not a serious fantasy - she's not available But Doreen from Dorking just might be. "What British users want is the girl next door," says David McGillivray, author of Doing Rude Things (Sun Tavern Fields pounds 9.95), a history of British soft porn films.