The sexual rights activist Tuppy Owens, who has died aged 80, an elegant, imposing figure with a frank, no-nonsense attitude, played an important part in the shifting of attitudes towards sexuality that began in the 1960s and 70s.
In 1972 she launched The Sex Maniac’s Diary, an annual directory which, in a pre-internet era, covered the minutiae of sexual activity across the world in granular detail. Owens carried out assiduous research with the aim of being the best compendium of sex services, including different international standards and mores – “like a yachtsman’s diary but about sex”.
