During the late 1980s, Blue Moon Books published a series of spanking erotica that perhaps represents a golden age of erotic publishing. This was a period that was post-sexual liberation and all those sexploitation books of the 1970s and before political correctness had insisted that all such books must constantly reiterate the consensual nature of erotic discipline and BDSM with the cold water of reality.

Earlier there had been others, such as Paul Little, who wrote some good books in the 1970s, but his books and other authors were still rooted, at least partially, in the wholly non-consensual era that had been a characteristic of the sexploitation books.

It was into this scene that Martin Pyx and his Sigma Cycle appeared. This trilogy, as has been mentioned on this blog before, was very much in the Will Henry tradition and featured guest chapters by the PN Deadeux in its exploration of Californian sorority life.

What was new about these books was the ambiguous nature of the relationships of the participants. Gone were the kidnappings of young girls into white slavery and traumatic torture for the pleasure of their master’s or the woman suffering for their man. These were willing victims who enjoyed hating their punishments, from which they derived secret pleasure, albeit sometimes a secret kept from themselves.

The best and most complex novel by Martin Pyx of this period was the Tutor’s Bride. This was a novel purporting to be a lost Victorian classic set upon the fictitious Caribbean island of Mardi Blanc during the 19th century.

It is centred around the island’s tutor and his new wife, Dolly Hunter, who at first pretends to be shocked by the casual use of corporal punishment on Mardi Blanc, especially as she finds that she must also submit. Secretly of course, she is fascinated by it all and sets out to explore her new life with her friend, Clara Harcourt, whom she at first takes as the mistress of her husband’s best friend Charles, only to find that she is a slave.

Although slavery is illegal on Mardi Blanc, Clara finds a complicated and honourable reason why she should submit, as she explains to Dolly. The truth is of course that she has exactly what she wants.

Hers is not the only apparently enforced submissive relationship. Lesbia Reardon, the older sister of the governor’s wife, is forced by penury to submit to her younger sister’s discipline. Indeed, she is informed that if she wishes to live on Mardi Blanc she must accept discipline from her own sons, once they are of age.

At first this seems harsh, but it slowly emerges that Lesbia betrayed her sister in the worst way in an earlier life, so she does not only deserve her fate, but she secretly welcomes it.

This transpires when we find that she is having a BDSM relationship with the island’s Dr Mackenna, all dressed up as medical treatment for her guilt of course.

This book has it all, featuring military discipline for women soldiers, judicial corrections, a school for young adults, indentured servitude for ladies of quality and all manner of naughty maids, each suffering humiliations in between enjoying the cruel fate of others.

It is not the sort of book you will find in WH Smith anymore, but maybe its time will come again.