The 2013 Spanking Writers awards

It’s something of a tradition for this blog to recognise highlights of the past year in an annual list. This is the eight year of the awards – made with no formal criteria other than “this is what works for me”! So, here goes…

Blog of the year. Let’s break with convention and start with what, for me, is the most important award that- as a writer and blogger – I can confer on a fellow author. I had the huge pleasure a few years back of meeting the author of my winning site, when she was visiting London from her home in Australia. She writes so honestly, so intensely, so regularly about kink and real life. Ladies and gentleman: the really rather fabulous Vesta’s Submission.

Blog entry of the year – ‘Dear Posy’, a letter to the author’s fictional future 15-year-old daughter, about sexuality. Powerful and moving.

Most evocative line of the year – in an email from Kay, as we plotted our first scene together:

“What would you like – insolence, meekness, defiance..?”

Kinky Tumblr of the year – goes to “Snowflake Roasting Service”, for its oft-updated mix of (NSFW) images of the beautiful Snow, with such calm and sound advice to many readers’ kink-related questions. Amidst the wealth of Tumblr sites (my own included) that merely repost, this stands out a mile for wonderful original content.

Hottest thing of the year – something I watched at the Regency house party we attended, involving my girl – about which I’m not personally going to blog. (Yes, that’s cruel of me, isn’t it? Sometimes certain details make me blush! But the more diligent of you may have read an account of it elsewhere!).

Favourite country – with two amazing trips for kinky fun, how could I not give a vote of thanks to Belgium? (Is that the first time Belgium has ever won an award for anything?!) (And huge thanks again to Olivia, Alias and Lemony for being so lovely and making the visits so enjoyable.)

And from my vanilla world…

Album of the year – Bastille’s “Bad Blood”. I’ve still not tired of listening to it, months on. They were pretty special live, too. (“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk has to be the song of the year, though – not least because it was released a fortnight after EJ and I moved in together, and I couldn’t have felt luckier).

Book of the year – dear goodness, that’s tough.  Claire Messud’s “The Woman Upstairs” is, I think, a genuinely great novel. “An English Affair” by Richard Havenport-Hines, about the Profumo affair, is non-fiction at its very best. And “Red or Dead”, David Pierce’s fictionalised account of the live of Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly, is astounding: the best ‘novel’ about sport I’ve ever read.

TV of the year – we don’t have a TV, but iPlayer and Netflix are sometimes pressed into service. Having re-watched the original British “House of Cards” in November – with its magnificent, memorable, Machiavellian performance by the late Ian Richardson – we then devoured the thirteen episodes of the newer US version almost back-to-back. Brilliant line after brilliant line – and lots of those with very kinky potential. As good as it gets.

Theatrical production of the year. Theatre is one of the great loves of my life, and I’d find it impossible to choose a winner for this award in such a golden era for the West End, were it not for “Once”, the musical. (I only saw it the three times, mind – just go and watch “Falling Slowly” 3:35 minutes in here and you’ll perhaps see why!). In terms of plays: the National’s brilliantly- and innovatively-directed Edward II; Rory Kinnear’s Iago, stealing the show from Adrian Lester’s wonderful “Othello”; the utterly engaging “A Season in the Congo” at the Young Vic.

Thanks to all those who’ve helped to keep me entertained during the year, and congratulations to the winners.