Nudity is fun, especially out of doors, but it is far more erotic when the wrappings are only partly removed from the treasures they conceal. When you undress a woman you are opening the drapes in a darkened room to gaze upon a glimpse of paradise.

Underwear is the female second skin.

When you undress a woman you discover in her lingerie clues to her mood and desires. These whispers of silk and satin are our armour, our feathers and fantasy – black-sexy, pink-girlie, white-virginal, red-anything might happen and (we pray) almost certainly will.

Just as the act of love should never be rushed – except between floors in an elevator, or with a stranger on a train – you should undress a woman with the same slow devotion she has shown in getting dressed.

Getting dressed for a woman is an art form, surreal, vaguely abstract, figurative and byzantine. When you undress a woman you enter her subconscious kingdom, her scents, her secrets and her fantasy.

The Emperor of China once sent a messenger to the wise man Lao-tsu to ask how he should rule the kingdom. Lao-tsu replied that he should rule the kingdom in the way you would cook a small fish. How do you cook a small fish? In the steady, cautious, caring way you undress a woman.