Photographer, promoter and general fetish doyen bobette has finally unleashed his/her catalogue of pictures from the past five years of fabulous Tortu...More

Spoof sex books tend to pop up around Christmas time like weeds in a country garden — and most of them are just about as welcome. Happily, Curious Pleasures in an exception to the generally grim nature of what passes for toilet reading. It purports to be a reprint of a genuine Victorian anthology of fetishism, complete with extensive illustrative plates, a list of further publications in which ‘gentlemen’ may be interested (including the detective novels of Sir Albert Bacon-Foyle and Golgotha Beckons: Advice Concerning Preparation For The Second Coming, Including Some Important Notes On Dress) and space to write one’s own field notes and observations.
The compendium has been thoroughly researched by the good Reverend, who is generally so appalled by the depravity inherent in such acts that he has to go and study them in the most intimate of detail. Covering everything from old favourites such as corporal punishment and mackintoshes to contemporary kinks including puppy play and medical fetishism, Curious Pleasures combines a genuine knowledge of and love for many of the practices described with gentle humour at their expense. It helps if the reader already knows something about the world of fetish and the Victorian era to get the most out of the jokes, but this self-proclaimed ‘most decadent book in the realm’ will be greatly appreciated by anyone with a passing interest in beastliness.

Elizabeth Coldwell