Newspaper Article

Saturday Review: books: Randy, spankable: Rosie Boycott laments Tynan's early ruin through S&M and self-loathing: The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan ed John Lahr 352pp, Bloomsbury, pounds 25

Boycott, Rosie

2001

Overview

I was 20 when I met Ken Tynan. Spare Rib was on the eve of being launched and Ken, along with the likes of Michael White, Felix Topolski and Christopher Logue, turned up at some of our fundraising parties and dutifully wrote out cheques for pounds 10 or pounds 20 towards \"the cause\". I also shared a birthday with Tynan's daughter, Tracy, whose mother, Elaine Dundy, had written a favourite book of mine, The Dud Avocado . For although she's done her best like a brave gel and good trouper to cooperate with her husband's rosebud predilections, [Kathleen]'s heart, it is clear, fails both herself and her husband in Dr Thwackum mode. There is self-protection to consider, apart from anything else. Ken is not satisfied by the kind of naughty games from the suburbs that you might find recommended \"to spice up your sex life\" in Cosmo or its imitators. With his schoolmaster's cane - what else? - Ken seeks to take sadomasochism to the dangerous edge and beyond. Dundy, his first wife - another, at best, dilettante masochist - reported a week-long orgy and four canes broken. Words to inspire the spanking partner \"Nicole\", who is already on the Tynan scene when he first introduces her in the diary in May 1974. Nicole is no weekend hippy but a real pro, though one who doesn't initially require cash from Ken or her other lovers. For free, after a hot Indian dinner, she indulges him by \"injecting a large glass of vodka into my anus via an enema tube. Within 10 minutes the agony is indescribable . . .\" There follows a long weekend of lavatory visits. \"NB three days later I am still seeping blood.\"

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Books-titles / Diaries of Kenneth Tynan, The / Nonfiction / Tynan, Kenneth