Eric Nicol has authored 33 books, written five plays for the legitimate theatre, and fathered three children - also legitimate. He is equally modest about having been table tennis champion (1936) of his high school. When questioned about his qualifications to discuss the world's most celebrated lover - Jacques Casanova of Venice - he points out that his maternal great-grandfather was also Italian, and there is no denying the inheritance of sexy genes. Eric is, however, married (to his wife Mary) and is subject to motion sickness in a gondola.