Front cover of On the Origin of Sex by Lixing Sun, hardback

On the Origin of Sex : The Weird and Wonderful Science of How Our Planet is Populated - Lixing Sun

Lixing Sun

£22.00
  • Pages · 368 pages, 40 plus integrated B&W photographs, illustrations
  • Publication Date · 05/03/2026
  • Genre · Zoology & animal sciences
Collect in store Pick it up free from the shop in Oxford's Covered Market, usually quicker than the post.
Delivery Standard tracked £1.99, free on orders over £20. Express tracked £2.99.
Book Lovers' Happy Hour Three cocktails matched to your taste, three books chosen for you, an hour and a half at the bar. £60 per person. Book a place →

A NEW SCIENTIST BOOK PICK FOR 2026'Fascinating' SUNDAY TIMES
'This book will make you rethink what you thought you knew about sex' CAT BOHANNON'A thrilling biological detective story. Brilliant told and relentlessly entertaining' CHARLES FOSTERExplore the spectacular science of reproduction - from frogs and funghi to seahorses, sparrows and everything in betweenLet's talk about sex. Not boring, human sex, but the endlessly fascinating, varied and complex forms of reproduction that can be found in the rest of the natural world. Whiptail lizards and California condors are capable of immaculate conception, while strawberries are reproductive flip-floppers. Clownfish can permanently change sex, while bearded dragons undergo temperature-dependent sex reversal. For the humble slime mould, sex can involve hundreds of mating types - a veritable bonanza. Lixing Sun has spent decades expanding the bounds of what we know about reproduction, in all its many flavours. And as it turns out, sex is far more complex and eye-opening than we ever could have imagined.

Only at Gulp Fiction

Book Lovers' Happy Hour

An hour and a half at the bar, with three cocktails matched to your taste and three books chosen for you. Tell us what you like when you book, and we'll have them waiting when you arrive.

  • 1½ hours
  • £60 per person
  • 3 cocktails, 3 books
Book Happy Hour

Up to four of you can come — book a place each and choose the same time slot, then tell us who you're with. For larger groups, email gulpfictionbooks@gmail.com and we'll arrange it.

Three customers at the window table in Gulp Fiction, cocktails in hand beside a stack of books, with Oxford's Covered Market visible through the glass

Collect in store

Order online and pick it up from the shop. It's free, and usually quicker than the post.

Find us

Units 28–29, Covered Market, Oxford OX1 3DU. Mon–Wed 10–5, Thu–Sat 10–10, Sun 11–4.

Book a table

The bar is open late Thursday to Saturday. Reserve a table for a drink among the books.