L’infernale fouetteuse (The Infernal Flogger) is one of two spanking titles published by Editions Prima in the mid-1930s with a text by ‘André Vergereau’, almost certainly a pseudonym – ‘vergereau’, French for orchard, an oblique reference to round rosy-cheeked apples and their like. The other text by ‘Vergereau’ and published by Prima, Mademoiselle Cinglade (Madam Nutcracker), was illustrated by Mario Laboccetta.

Unlike the earlier spanking titles from Prima, this text is almost exclusively woman-on-woman, suggesting that like many of the publications of the period it may well have been written by a woman for her largely male readership – it is quite likely, however, that most purchasers bought the book for the pictures rather than the text …