Finally unleashed – an erotic classic with an unlikely title.

London, 1946. In the aftermath of war, a young woman meets an older stranger in a pub. Within an hour she’s had sex with him on a park bench. Within a month she’s settled into a relationship of ritual humiliation and subjugation, violence and rape, but perversely a feeling of satisfaction and safety like no other she’s experienced.

Banned by the Obscene Publications Act, Gordon gained cult status in the 60s, alongside other shockers like The Story of O and Nabokov’s paedo-lit Lolita. But like those, it’s lost its outrageousness today, when saying “virility” instead of penis is amusingly coy and the heroine’s Oedipus complex is more glaringly obvious.

Still, you have to admire the relish with which she abandons herself to her sadomasochistic desires and the destruction that follows, all based on Templeton’s own experiences. A self-confessed misogynist, Templeton still holds up this intense relationship as her ideal. How the other half live, eh? Laura Bushell 06 June 03

Gordon by Edith Templeton is out now, published by Viking.

useful link: penguin uk: gordon