Gordon, By Edith Templeton

Gordon may have been written in 1966 – and prompty banned for indecency in England – but this intense tale of sexual submission, humilation and gratification is a fine alternative for those frustrated by the anodyne S&M relationship in Fifty Shades of Grey.

The novel opens as the narrator, Louisa, is led out of a bar by a man she has never met. The strangers take a bus ride to his garden and there, without much ado, they have sex. It is not only an unsettling portrait of psycho-sexual entanglement but also an exquisite love story.