Archive - Saturday, 28 March 1998


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MISS KINKY DENIES RIGHT WING SMEAR.

SNARESBROOK'S very own Miss Whiplash has hit the headlines again after being linked with the British National Party (BNP).

Marianne Martindale, of Eagle Lane, has denied allegations that she was in correspondence with John Tyndall, the leader of the far-right BNP.

Writing in the national Guardian newspaper last week, journalist Francis Wheen told how letters from Mr Tyndall to a Catherine Tyrell were found at a former home of Miss Martindale's in Ireland.

Although she admitted Catherine Tyrell was her previous alias, Miss Martindale has denied the claims.

She said: "I'm not interested in politics or any form of political activity. The letters were addressed to another girl living in the house.

"But if I wanted to write to (Mr Tyndall) I would, as we live in a fully civilised society where I can write to who I want."

Controversy is nothing new for Miss Martindale, who is a great advocate of keeping women in line with corporal and non-corporal punishments.

From her home she runs a female disciplinary school, the Wildfire Club, and a publishing house which produces books such as The Female Disciplinary Manual.

Spanking, caning and birching are a way of life for Miss Martindale and her followers, but Francis Wheen's article revealed how these punishments could sometimes turn nasty.

Wheen told how -- while using another name, Mari de Colwyn -- Miss Martindale had been convicted of causing actual bodily harm in Ireland after she caned a girl on the buttocks.

Miss Martindale said: "I hit a girl, who had done a very naughty thing, with a single birch twig."

The allegations date back to 1992 but they have surfaced after she helped publicise a new theme night, called Sweethearts, at a lesbian West End nightclub, Candy Bar.

Miss Martindale and her followers, who come to her home, recreate a bygone world called Aristasia by dressing in 1950s clothes, driving a 1950s car and listening to pre-war music on an old gramophone.

But Miss Martindale does not reject all modernity -- she publicisSweethearts on the Internet.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.