He also published two books on historical perceptions of human beauty – "Beauty in History" (1988) and "It: a History of Human Beauty" (2004) – in which he attacked the feminist argument that beauty is merely a social construct. His first book was heavily criticised by feminists, including Angela Carter, who sarcastically proposed as a subtitle: "Women I have fancied throughout the ages with additional notes on some of the men I think I might have fancied if I were a woman."