First published anonymously in the underground Victorian magazine The Pearl in 1879, Miss Coote’s Confession, or the Voluptuous Experiences of an Old Maid, here in its first French translation as Les confessions de Miss Coote, consists of ten letters from an older dominatrix to a younger woman. The character is probably based on the real-life Theresa Berkley, who ran a brothel in Soho in the 1830s.

Miss Coote was an obvious contender for Charles Carrington’s growing list of spanking titles, so this translation of ‘Dix lettres touchant ses expériences en matière des corrections coporelles en Angleterre’ (which hardly needs translating) neatly fills the bill. The 21 van Maële prints accompanying the text are a very strange ragbag, featuring an array of devilish characters wielding flagellation devices of all kinds and having almost nothing whatsoever to do with the narrative. This is Carrington at one of his most scraping-the-barrel low points.

Here is a sample of the text – you can read the whole of the first of the ten Miss Coote letters in the original English here: 

I know I have long promised you an account of the reason of my penchant for the rod, which, in my estimation, is one of the most voluptuous and delicious institutions of private life, especially to a supposed highly respectable old maid like your esteemed friend. Treaties must be carried out, and promises kept, or how can I ever hope for the pleasure of making you taste my little green tickler again. Writing, and especially a sort of confession of my voluptuous weakness, is a most unpleasant task, as I feel as shamefaced in putting these things on paper as when my grandfather’s housekeeper first bared my poor blushing little bottom to his ruthless attack. My only consolation at commencing is the hope that I shall warm to the subject as it progresses, in my endeavour to depict, for your gratification, some of the luscious episodes of my early days.