1. of All Time
Seduction is known as the ‘noble art’, and almost certainly originates from the medieval days of courtly love, where innocent virgins were conquered, or ‘de-flowered’, by flattery, favours, or just after a hard-won joust with a rival. Nowadays, the methods that work best are the basic ones – make sure you make your suitor feel special, win their trust with charm and persuasion, refine you’re come-to-bed-eyes look, and, voila, you’ll be in business before you can say ‘wham bam thank you mam’. Seduction is an art form, an erotic ritual that’s accompanied by a complex set of rules, some of which can be revealed by the greatest seducers of all time. Working alongside Best Venues London I want to talk about these 7 seducers who were all masters, or mistresses, in the art of love and sex.
2. John Wilkes
John Wilkes, who was once described as the ugliest man in England, is an unlikely candidate for a seducer. He was a radical MP, a journalist who wrote pornographic poetry, and at one time was the Lord Mayor of London, but he possessed extraordinary charm. ‘In just half an hour,’ he once said, ‘I can get the better of any man, however good-looking, in the graces of any lady.’ In an exchange with the Earl of Sandwich, who declared ‘Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox,’ Wilkes replied: ‘That, sir, depends on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress.’ Why was he so successful? Because he had buckets of unfettered charm.
3. Casanova
Giacomo Casanova was arguably the greatest and best known of all the seducers, the one who gave his name to the charming yet roguish breed. By the age of 17, this Venetian charlatan, adventurer, wit, writer and spy had qualified for a law degree. He had a scandalous career and was banished from most of Europe’s large cities because of his sexual escapades. His technique was to seek out a lady in trouble, be attentive and charming, rescue her, favour her with small gifts, bed her, then move on to the next.
4. Cleopatra
Cleopatra was a great beauty and the last Pharaoh of Egypt. She obtained her power and authority through love affairs with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Her seduction technique? She was playful, witty and coquettish, and no one dared rebuff her advances.
5. errol flynn
The dashingly handsome actor whose swash-buckling roles on screen made him a huge star, had a notorious, hard-drinking, brawling and womanising life off-camera. In 1942, two underage chorus girls accused Errol Flynn of rape, but he was found not guilty. His seduction method? Oodles of charm and if the expression ‘In like Flynn’ really does refer to him, then he was probably also not shy in coming forward!
6. wilt chamberlain
If sheer quantity of conquests is the mark of a master seducer, then USA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who claimed to have slept with around 20,000 women, has to be up there with the best. If true, this figure suggests that he had sex with more than eight different women every week from the age of 16 to the day he died. Bah! Highly improbable. Nevertheless, he obviously had that special something to charm the pants off the ladies, and being the highest paid basketball star probably didn’t hurt his chances either. ‘Wilt hit on everything that moved, but was always charming, never bad or rude,’ said Swedish high jumper Annette Tannander.
7. alan clark
MP, writer, diarist and terrible English snob, Alan Clark was also an incorrigible lech. ‘Girls have to be succulent,’ he pronounced, ‘and that means under the age of twenty-five.’ His most remembered seduction was that of a judge’s wife and her two daughters. His technique? Boundless, boyish enthusiasm, wit and charm. ‘A plump young woman came into my compartment at Waterloo,’ he wrote in his diary. ‘She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her delightful globes bounced prominently. I gave her a huge grin, I just couldn’t help it.’
8. jack nicholson
Following in the tradition of his fellow Hollywood lotharios Frank Sinatra and Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson certainly wasn’t a one-woman man, not by any stretch of the imagination. ‘Physical and sexual vitality is one of the reasons I’m lively,’ said the 71-year-old, who has had no fewer than six children by five different women. Kim Basinger referred to him as the most highly-sexed individual she’d ever met’. His technique? That bad-boy glint in the eye, the evil but charming grin, and his smouldering intensity.