September 2001 ISBN 0-921870-88-4 6 x 9  254 pp, $18.95 pb Non-Fiction, Humour Sexuality

What does Jacques Casanova, demonstrably the world's greatest lover, have to say to heterosexual men of the 21st century? Do his celebrated memoirs provide a message for the muddled swains of our time, whose sex drive is often stuck in neutral because liberated women can be a scary climb? The answer, one that Casanova was accustomed to hearing: si . . . oui . . . yes! The Casanova Sexicon organizes his life's enlightening episodes and insights in alphabetically arranged sections, with blithe if moot commentary, for easy study and memorization. His success in seducing the ladies of 18th-century Europe is clearly pertinent to today's career woman. The king's mistress (Pompadour) presented the same challenge as our female CEO of the gas company. The way that Casanova made pretty nuns forget their bridal vows to God will work equally well with worshippers of Greer and Friedan. His secret? - love. Without that constant, The History of My Life would be merely naughty bits. But Casanova genuinely loved his women. Loved to please them, talk to them, meet the love children they bore him. So, for the would-be Casanova, this text's pages serve to cap such love with sexual fulfilment, the consummation devoutly to be wished. Remedial reading, for over-eighteens.

"On the delicate subject of sex, the man who has won more Leacock awards for humour than any other shows that he hasn't lost his touch." — Allan Fotheringham

"When you care enough to demand the best, it's got to be Gretzky for hockey, Jordan for hoops, Casanova for seduction - and Nicol to explain, as only he can, that sex is a particiation sport. But if there was a league, Casanova would be the commissioner. If I'd had this book in high school, my zits would have cleared a lot earlier." — Jim Taylor, Sports Columnist & Author.

Eric Nicol has authored 33 books, written five plays for the legitimate theatre, and fathered three children - also legitimate. He is equally modest about having been table tennis champion (1936) of his high school. When questioned about his qualifications to discuss the world's most celebrated lover - Jacques Casanova of Venice - he points out that his maternal great-grandfather was also Italian, and there is no denying the inheritance of sexy genes. Eric is, however, married (to his wife Mary) and is subject to motion sickness in a gondola.