FREE delivery to all EXCLUSIVE BOOKS stores nationwide. FREE delivery to your door on all orders over R450. Excludes all international deliveries.

Kiss

Katie Barclay
    Product form
      FORMAT: Hardback

      R 619.00 Price and availability exclusive to website

      YOU COULD EARN 619 FUTURE RETAIL DISCOUNTS.
      ESTIMATED DELIVERY: Approx. 10 - 15 Business Days
      BUY NOW PAY LATER
      From R 103.16 per month!
      3x monthly payments of R 206.33 with
      4x fortnightly payments of R 154.75 with

      This book tells the surprising history of our most intimate gesture: the kiss. Richly illustrated, it explores a millennium of kisses, asking how and why the kiss has retained its power over the centuries, and what it might mean today. From the furtive kisses of fated lovers Heloise and Abelard to The Godfather’s ‘kiss of death’, Katie Barclay shows how the kiss can be romantic, peaceful, transgressive, intimate, erotic and more. There are kisses that are bad ideas, dangerous kisses and funny ones. New kisses are invented and old ones fall out of favour. While the kiss continues to change, Barclay shows that we kiss fewer people, and less often, than we used to. The Kiss reveals a cultural inheritance transmitted in story and song, art and literature, and through the everyday kisses that we receive from our parents, or reserve for our lovers; when we kiss, we kiss with the weight of history.

      Format: Hardback CONTRIBUTORS: Katie Barclay EAN: 9781836392613 COUNTRY: United Kingdom PAGES: 240 WEIGHT: HEIGHT: 216 mm
      PUBLISHED BY: Reaktion Books DATE PUBLISHED: 2026-08-01 CITY: GENRE: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays WIDTH: 138 mm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      Society and culture: general

      Customer Reviews

      Be the first to write a review
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      Katie Barclay is a historian of love and relationships, who has published widely in the field of the history of emotions, gender history, law and family life. She is the author of seven books, including Loneliness in World History (2025). She is Professor of History at Macquarie University, Sydney.

      This book tells the surprising history of our most intimate gesture: the kiss. Richly illustrated, it explores a millennium of kisses, asking how and why the kiss has retained its power over the centuries, and what it might mean today. From the furtive kisses of fated lovers Heloise and Abelard to The Godfather’s ‘kiss of death’, Katie Barclay shows how the kiss can be romantic, peaceful, transgressive, intimate, erotic and more. There are kisses that are bad ideas, dangerous kisses and funny ones. New kisses are invented and old ones fall out of favour. While the kiss continues to change, Barclay shows that we kiss fewer people, and less often, than we used to. The Kiss reveals a cultural inheritance transmitted in story and song, art and literature, and through the everyday kisses that we receive from our parents, or reserve for our lovers; when we kiss, we kiss with the weight of history.

      Format: Hardback CONTRIBUTORS: Katie Barclay EAN: 9781836392613 COUNTRY: United Kingdom PAGES: 240 WEIGHT: HEIGHT: 216 mm
      PUBLISHED BY: Reaktion Books DATE PUBLISHED: 2026-08-01 CITY: GENRE: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays WIDTH: 138 mm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      Society and culture: general

      Customer Reviews

      Be the first to write a review
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      Katie Barclay is a historian of love and relationships, who has published widely in the field of the history of emotions, gender history, law and family life. She is the author of seven books, including Loneliness in World History (2025). She is Professor of History at Macquarie University, Sydney.

      Recently viewed products

      Login

      Forgot your password?

      Don't have an account yet?
      Create account