Nanette & I spent a few hours at Erotica on the Friday night.

The first thing to say is that the entry price was pretty steep at 16 quid each, and slightly more on the Sat/Sun, but against this it was pretty massive, and a good half of the stands seemed to include either BDSM kit or kinky clothing. As a chance to look at the quality of what was available from a huge range of outlets, it was ideal. Not having any immediate need for new toys, that was the main benefit for me - to decide which companies I would be happy to buy from over the web at a later date.

Didn't do much more than glance at the stage-shows, mainly 'cos we wanted to look round everything and only had a few hours to do it in, but to be honest there was just as much on display as you just wandered round the place. :-)

There were a few stalls offering some truly fabulous items of furniture, although it has to be said that the prices reflected the desirability and build-quality! For example, Bondage Systems had an absolutely stunning revolving cross: click here to see it. Admittedly it has an equally stunning price - 1200 quid.

Fetters had some lovely items, though a cute toy Nanette bought turned out to be a bit disappointing in terms of the quality of the components. On calling them, however, we were immediately and cheerfully offered a choice of refund or replacement.

I also had a much better look at Richard Larsen's jewellery. While the designs were cute, the triskellon ring I'd intended to buy didn't look quite as good in the flesh, as it were, so will be investigating alternatives there.

'London's largest display of erotic art' was *extremely* disappointing. I was pretty interested in finding a good erotic artist for some paintings for my bedroom, but almost all of it was embarrassingly amateurish - and I'm not an art-snob, it really was abysmal. The exceptions didn't happen to have anything that appealed. Still, did find a photo-poster I liked, so bought that.

It was pretty busy, so you had to wait to speak to people on most stands, but everyone we spoke to was very friendly and quite happy to demonstrate things and chat about their wares.

Bottom-line? Such a high entrance fee felt like they were taking the piss a little, and I'm sure would have deterred some visitors, but a worthwhile visit and would definitely go again.

Ben