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With links to all the reviews, and so on. In case there is somebody I still haven't told. Here.

An enjoyable femdom romp in the style of classic British comedy

A review of 'The Paramount Rule' by Tanya Simmonds

The cover from the now-rare first edition

This amusing femdom novel is described by its author as a 'romp', and that's exactly what it is. There's a touch of classic British comedy to it, though it isn't exactly played for laughs. In Oakpark Grange school there's a dodgy institution trading on an undeserved reputation. There are dissolute aristocrats, and ladies of a certain age with refined manners but powerful sex drives. It has the acute social observation that made the Ealing comedies, and subsequently the Carry On films, so excruciating and at the same time enjoyable.

There is a definite retro feel to it, in the settings, the deferential power and social relationships it depicts, and most of all in the language. The male pupils of the school don't have “cocks”, they have “members” (always turgid or tumescent); they don't “come”, they “spend”. The story is set in the early 1950s, but it could just as easily be the 1920s. It's definitely in some mythologised past England, where everything stops for tea at four o'clock.

The retro quality is of course enhanced by the boarding school setting, which provides for arbitrary authoritarianism, rules and punishments, relationships between older women and young men, and lots of creeping about in the dark for illicit nocturnal rendezvous. Well, it worked for J K Rowling, didn't it?

The period feeling doesn't detract from the fun aspects of the book. There are four beautiful, cruel and passionate dommes, and lashings of lashings, with lots of different instruments. There is enforced cunnilingus in a special section of the punishment room, lesbian love between the teachers, and bondage with special equipment, including a penis pillory and an ingenious 'controller' which automatically masturbates the recalcitrant young men but delivers appropriately timed electric shocks to prevent them from coming. Now that's surely an anachronism whatever the time-period the book's setting – I didn't actually get one of those until last year.

There is plenty of straightforward sex too, between teacher and pupil and then between pupils once the school goes co-ed. In fact, the book is almost awash with semen – for a novel in which the focus is supposed to be orgasm denial, there are an awful lot of high-volume ejaculations. That's my main gripe with the book. Given the orgasm denial theme I was looking forward to a lot more teasing and frustrated male desire, which I find very sexy; but the horny, hot boys are rarely prevented from coming whenever they want to, even if they are often punished afterwards. Chastity devices do make a small appearance near the end, but I'd like to have seen more of them (apparently they are more prevalent in what is in effect the sequel, "Prisoners of the Governess".

Still, this is a minor quibble. Tanya Simmonds is a great femdom author, with a fine eye for telling detail, and the book deserves to be read by every devotee of the genre.

Review of Cuckold Stories: Series One By Eden Rose

First, to dispel any doubts, this is a very dirty, sexy, kinky book. If that's the sort of thing you like, you'll love this. But that said, it's a bit unusual. The sex doesn't really start until at least a third of the way in. Until then we learn a lot about the first-person narrator; in fact, we learn more him than he knows himself. For me that's always an indication of a good writer, and Rose pulls this off rather well. We learn about his background in poverty, his history crawling up from the gutter to star status, his successes and his failures (he's a best selling author but is lonely and has no meaningful relationships with anyone). Curiously, we don't get a strong sense that he is a gay man. The character is rather in denial about this, but even so...it was particularly confusing for me because I knew the author was a woman. Maybe I'm just slow, or perhaps I was reading it too fast to get to the dirty bits. In any case, Rose writes this rather well, and I couldn't help thinking that this part of her work could stand on its own outside of a sex book.

But the story takes off when the narrator is taken to see a sex counsellor with some unusual techniques...and of course, a fully equipped dungeon. Here too Rose has managed to invent what is for me a new kink. Forced bi is a fairly common theme in femdom literature, where as part of his humiliation a straight submissive is forced to perform gay sex, often with another straight submissive. Rose's innovation is forced straight; her narrator is gay, even though he doesn't entirely identify as such, so forcing him to have all kinds of wet, messy sex with a dominatrix carries additional humilation energy. Well done, that woman. She's particularly good on the choreography of threesomes, and the spectacular foursome that completes the story is unlikely to be equalled for some time.

There's an extra little cuckold story on the end, much shorter but for me even more enjoyable. Rose introduces it as a more 'normal' story, and I suppose it does draw on a more conventional part of the femdom palette. But it's pretty damn hot, with bondage, forced chastity, cuckolding, and lots of nasty messy details.

One tiny quibble with this one; as Chekhov says, “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Similarly, I don't think anyone should introduce a big dildo into a femdom story with a submissive male unless it is going to go up his ass. Sucking it off is just not enough. But as I said, that's a quibble. It's an enjoyable little story, and I'd like to see more short stories like this from Rose – though I suspect that as a writer with a strong interest in the inner life of her characters she wants to write more outside this genre rather than it.

The book has some nice reviews!

One from BDSM Book Reviews, here: http://www.bdsmbookreviews.com/2013/07/10/review-nothing-ventured-by-salome-verdad/

And one from Rude magazine, here: http://www.rudemagazine.co.uk/culture/book-review-nothing-ventured-a-twisted-tale-of-high-tech-high-heels-by-salome-verdad.php

Both reviewers (and some of the others too, including some of the reviews on Amazon) see the book as very much a work of two halves - a first 'sexy' half and a second 'violent' half. This is really interesting to me. I always planned for the plot to go the way that it did.

BDSM is, it seems to be, a highly stylized pageant which is about violence but does not necessarily involve any 'real' hurting. I  think that for many in the scene pain and threat, and humiliation for that matter, are important as symbolic confirmations of the transfer of power. Pain is more important in this way than as a physical stimulus - for the sub, it's a way of proving to yourself that you really have ceded control. Giving up control while remaining safe is what it's all about.

Putting actual violence into the novel violates this, which is why it's so upsetting. From the perspective of a writer something has to happen to make a story; consensual, safe BDSM sex is what you want in real life, but not in fiction. I've noted that other femdom writers do something similar - depicting a good, loving femdom relationship and then bringing in an outsider to disrupt it - Joey Hill does this in Natural Law, for example.

It's probably also worth noting that the internet has democratized BDSM in unexpected ways. Once, the scene was small and closed. People were initiated into the culture via other experienced practitioners. They bought props and stuff from specialist shops, and if they weren't prepared to make that sort of commitment and take that sort of risk then they didn't move beyond fantasy. Now it's possible to order kit online, and to interact with others without having to meet in real life at all. Femdom porn of varying quality, and depicting all kinds of scenarios (not just the scene's prescribed ones) are widely available too.

At the same time images from femdom and BDSM are much more present in mainstream popular culture - advertising, TV, music videos, fashion. Lots of people come into contact with it, and their interest is piqued. It all makes for a very different kind of audience.