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Intimacy
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  • Published: 22 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529954050
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $30.00

Intimacy

A field guide to finding connection and feeling your deep desires

Formats & editions
Paperback
22 Sept 2026
Tr. Paperback
3 June 2025
EBook
5 June 2025
Audiobook
5 June 2025
Hardback
5 July 2025
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Lessons to transform intimacy in our own lives, learned from a journey of changing sex on screen, by Ita O'Brien - the pioneering intimacy coordinator behind Sex Education, I May Destroy You, and Normal People.

What is sex? What is love? What is lust? What is connection? What is intimacy?

Before Ita O'Brien, no-one was thinking about how we see sex and intimacy on screen. But, after a lifetime of working in film and TV and seeing its abuses first-hand, Ita decided to change its ways for good.

Now, as Intimacy Coordinator on productions including Normal People, Sex Education and I May Destroy You, Ita has transformed the way we see and talk about sex in pop-culture. Here, Ita shares her new rules on intimacy for the post-#MeToo, post-Covid era, to help us rethink how we navigate sex and intimacy in our own lives - at home, in our closest relationships - and in society as a whole.

Full of behind-the-scenes stories, Intimacy is a call for us to rethink how we navigate each other, not just through our words, but through our bodies and actions, too.
  • Published: 22 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529954050
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $30.00
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About the author

Ita O'Brien

Ita O'Brien is one of the world's leading Intimacy Coordinators, and the creator of the Intimacy On Set guidelines, which are now used around the world. She has worked on a huge number of productions (23 in 2021 alone!), including Normal People (BBC/Hulu), I May Destroy You (BBC/HBO), It's A Sin (Channel 4/HBO) and Sex Education (Netflix), and upcoming releases include Conversations With Friends (BBC/Hulu), Dangerous Liaisons (Playground/Starz), Lady Chatterley's Lover (Netflix/Blueprint Pictures; dir: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre) and Empire of Light (Neal Street Productions/Searchlight; dir: Sam Mendes). Ita has been interviewed or profiled by Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Guardian, The Times, Elle, Entertainment Weekly and many others, and appeared on numerous radio and television shows, and podcasts.
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Praise for Intimacy

Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of human connection in the modern world, this book offers a fresh perspective on how we can approach intimacy with confidence, respect, and joy.

Gillian Anderson

In the days after I finished reading Intimacy, I’ve found myself returning to it

Matt Rudd, Sunday Times Magazine

O'Brien has risen to the status of Britain's queen of intimacy

Eva Wiseman, Observer Magazine

Intimacy is the definitive guide for readers seeking deeper connection with themselves and with others. This book will help you navigate your relationships and better your life. It’s simply a must-read!

Karen Tang, MD, award-winning author of 'It's Not Hysteria'