“Over half the women in England use sex toys,” goes the commentary in the new Channel 4 TV show on sex toys, “but they are all designed by men....

'Tis the season to be jolly... and to buy sex toys, apparently. According to market analyst company The Hewson Group, sales of erotic products peak...

Despite the dismal economic climate, the sex toy industry is booming. Erotic products for women alone boast an estimated global retail value of £...

Perhaps the beauty of the sex toy market lies in the fact that there is something for everyone whether you're single or partnered, with tastes running from vanilla to kinky and everything in between.

It's been interesting to hear a range of responses to Fifty Shades of Grey. In conversation and through social media, I've heard boredom, fear, intrigue, disgust, excitement, hilarity, obsession, nonchalance, disappointment, flippancy, mild amusement, thoughtful interest and sheer fun.

Is it a mystical fungi? Or an unearthed species? Unfortunately for this budding TV reporter, the strange, unearthed object that baffled villagers ...

Even a decade ago, using a vibrator or (worse!) a male mastubator was an admission of failure, a last resort for the losers in love who had given up on ever having an actual flesh-and-blood relationship. All the lonely people, the Beatles nearly sang, where do they go to come? But now, according to research, the sex toy market is worth an estimated £250m a year in the UK.

The amount of press the recent G-spot 'discovery' generated was mind-bogglingly excessive - anyone would think the guy had found a cure for cancer, for God's sake.

It's 2012, the age of instant. We all want quick answers to complex questions but when we try to find them, there's so much information out there, we're bamboozled by choice. Its especially the case with sex. There's a surplus of information about it (some great, some bollocks) - hands up who's bewildered by the overabundance of it all?