PERSONAL ESSAYS
Starfirsts compiled by Dana Cook
 
Richard Branson, businessman and adventurer "Asthmasms"  
I had a number of girlfriends . . . and came tantalisingly closer and closer to losing my virginity at parties, when the lights went out and everyone lay around on cushions.
     I finally found a girl who was reputed to go the whole way, and at one party we slipped upstairs into a remote bedroom. I was amazed when she let me push up her skirt and take off her knickers. As we began to make love, she started to moan and groan. She was clearly having a very erotic time. I was pretty pleased by how well I must be performing since she was panting and tossing her head from side to side as she fought to control her breathing. I put up a great show and finally came with equally impressive gusto, roaring and shouting and huffing and puffing. Then I rolled off her. To my astonishment she carried on panting, apparently having what I took to be ecstatic multiple orgasms. Just as I was beginning to feel a little bemused and somewhat redundant, I finally realized that she was panting for a reason.
     "Asthma!" she wheezed in breathless panic "Inhaler! Ambulance!" (London, 1967)


from Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (Virgin Publishing, © 1998)


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