Back to Order FormDaughter of the Manse by Garrick Espieside ISBN 0 9522762 7 5
160 page A5 paperback, price £9.99 or $20
A Spiral Oak Publication
A realistic presentation of a young woman’s masochistic odyssey from pubescence to maturity, set against an authentic backdrop of Scottish academic, religious, and legal life in the Sixties, and beyond. Deals explicitly with sado-masochistic activities - whips and bonds variety, with one instance of decorative branding - and pokes not a little fun at the legal proceedings by which books like this were once declared obscene, and in which those who participate in the activities described, might be prosecuted even today.
"A filthy combination of lewdness and satire" Recommended reading for judges, lawyers, and ladies of light virtue.
With tart and informative Notes by Nelson Bull providing historical and legal background, including discussion of recent cases, and their implications for sado-masochists everywhere (legally qualified or not).
Forum, Volume 24 No1 2000:-"Daughter Of The Manse is pure fiction, and more enjoyable for that. Beginning in the early Sixties, it tells the story of Wendy, who discovers a taste for corporal punishment while preparing to enter university, and boosts her academic grades by means of special ‘tuition’ sessions that invariably end with a tawsing or caning. When she loses her virginity to a local bookseller who specialises in erotic literature, she does not realise that ultimately both he and she will feel the full weight of the law - he for peddling porn, she for submitting to a decorative branding...
The book aims to explore the hypocrisy of the law’s attitude towards pornographic material and sado-masochistic acts ... , and it makes some valid points. It also paints a vivid portrait of how Scottish attitudes towards sexual behaviour have changed (or not, as the case may be) over the last forty years. However, it’s at its most convincing when describing Wendy’s punishment sessions and the pleasure she derives from them. Extensive notes are provided, detailing both legal points and topical references of the day, ....... For those who like their erotica spiced with a little social history."
The Scotsman, 10th March 2001:-
SUSPICIONS that Scottish publishing subsists on a diet of books about hill-walking, the Clearances and porpoise-flensing are dispelled by this remarkable novel. Billed as “recommended reading for judges, lawyers and ladies of light virtue”, this remarkable novel is mostly narrated by Wendy, who, after being subjected to the lick of the tawse by her headmaster, pursues her newly aroused peccadillo at Glasgow University. Various “lessons”, described in smarting detail, follow, interspersed with Wendy’s slightly more conventional romantic adventures. She is deflowered by an impecunious bookseller (is there any other kind?) and indulges in Sapphic revels with her flatmate Bernadette. Eventually she and Bernadette head for Edinburgh, where their enthusiastic encounters with the capital’s tourists bring them to the attention of the police.
Its sado-masochistic interludes described in a starched, old-fangled prose that renders them absolutely hilarious (“Her indignation heightened the flush in her cheeks already induced by the appearance of my own nether counterparts”), this is a sly, witty, subversive read. Reviewed by David Cunningham
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Historical Novels: Daughter of the Manse: A young woman's masochistic odyssey from pubescence to maturity.
The Discipline Archive: An experiment in institutional discipline in the late 1940's.
Seducing Her Sins Away: The true story of Father Jean-Baptiste Girard, the
fifty-year-old priest, and Catherine Cadiere, his teenage penitent.
