“Between 1672 and 1712 in London and at least two of the suburban or rural areas near the city, three individuals, each known by the nickname of “Whipping Tom,” carried out brief, minor reigns of terror against unsuspecting females. The distinctive moniker’s pretty much self-explanatory: from what scanty historical and journalistic records we can find, all three inflicted quick but undoubtedly painful corporal punishments on their victims. That is, spanking or whipping the unfortunate women’s buttocks. One supposes it’s a mercy that nobody thought to call any of the three ‘Jack the Whipper.’…
“The first Tom… personally intrigues me the most because, of the three, we know the absolute least about him. No information remains of where, specifically, he staged his spankings or of his ever being caught, but that he existed is evident from the one record that mentions him, a comparison between him and Tom II (“Whipping Tom Brought to Light and Exposed to View,” Anonymous, London, 1681): ‘Know then, that according to common Fame, [the current Whipping Tom] is of the Generation of that Whipping Tom, that about Nine years since proved such an enemy to the Milk-wenches’ Bums, and often times occasioned the Country Dames to hire a Guard for the security of their Posteriors; whose name so overawed Joan and Ciss that they durst not stir out after Candlelight to meet their Sweet-hearts, for fear of having an Alarum beaten upon their Tobies…’”
Thus writes Felicia Culbertson Guthrie, heroine of Pink Flamingo Media’s “Switch” series who, with a little help from her friend Ardie Stallard, now takes pen in hand to write and offer up a novel of her own. Though not a factual account of the three historical figures known to us as “Whipping Tom,” her work is a plausible historical fiction piece of what COULD have happened. And who knows? Maybe it did! Edited by her husband, Joe Guthrie, and her friend “Ed” Edwards, in addition to Ardie Stallard’s contributions, it’s a spicy account of seventeenth-century adult spanking, both erotic and otherwise. Hold onto your toby, and take a read!
ARDIE STALLARD 