The late, libidinous, Alan Clarke's Diaries tell you more than any academic study about the reality of politics, about the relationship between politicians and civil servants, the way individuals exploit power, and the way the apparently powerful strive to achieve within the structures and constraints in which they operate.
The latter half of the 17th century saw the start of a backlash against extreme Puritanism, particularly among the upper classes who observed the louche goings on at court, led by the libidinous Charles II.
His chief ally, Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, has said bluntly that he does not think the coalition can survive until 2013.Until now, Mr Berlusconi's most useful prop has been the Roman Catholic church, which seemed to have decided that even a libidinous TV mogul was better than a left-wing government.
The bare-bones version is simply an indemnity for the cost of a challenge to the prenup; elaborate policies will include other expenses such as mediation and, if that fails, the cost of a contested divorce.Unlike those for car insurance, the premiums are flat rates: the libidinous will pay the same as the uxorious.
The other side has, in turn, accused Mr Berlusconi's lot of being corrupt, criminal and libidinous.
Perhaps it would be better to stick to more psychologically robust and less libidinous space explorers: robots.
The board, reportedly weary of allegations about Mr Charney's libidinous behaviour, removed him as chief executive last month.
As the reader reaches the economic and social decline of the English aristocracy after the death of Queen Victoria, it helps to be told that the libidinous King Edward VII was known as "Edward the Caresser" by his disrespectful subjects.
It not only makes more of it than any other country; it also produces more in-your-face culture loud mouthed, libidinous and impossible to ignore.
He does not spare Mr Clinton's sexual recklessness and he is even more severe about the "libidinous crudeness" of his departing lavishness with pardons as "inappropriate", to use Mr Clinton's own weasel word, as his relationship with an adolescent intern.
He saw a libidinous bull eating it once, and decided that the luckless leaf was the cause of its excessive sex drive.
