Spanking Reference in a Mainstream Novel ...

Just reading the H. E. Bates Pop Larkin novels and saw the following reference which I enjoyed. The scene is that the Larkin family decide to get their 7 children christened. The Reverend Candy is trying to deal with a list of impossible names which he will need to remember, and the attentions of a seductive daughter (Primrose; yes, this is a gentle English comedy written mid 20th century).

The problem is the mischievous identical twin daughters who the good Reverend is concerned he will not be able to differentiate on the day and so risking baptising the wrong daughter with the wrong name and hearing that they are mischievous from Ma Larkin, he worries that they might deliberately confuse him. Ma's response is, and I quote verbatim:

"They'd better not," Ma said, "or I'll warm their bottoms. And in church too, if I have to."

Ahhh ... the good old days.

I don't remember any mainstream novels that have spanking references. Harlequin romance stories supposedly are chock full of them, but I never saw any.

Anne McCaffrey was said to only write young adult stories, because of a lack of mature content. So in two stories, she had where the main characters were telepathic, and after an argument, the willful female lead, said to her love interest something like: I'm surprised you'd like to do that to me. But after I do what I need to do, if you still feel the same then you can do that too.

She aluded to sex too, but it was very censored and chaste a description (there was nothing arousing about it).

Coming across a spanking reference unexpectedly is a special sort of pleasure which it's impossible to replicate with a spanking story.

Agreed. Any unexpected spanking in mainstream media is usually better than one where you expect a spanking.

Here's a few from memory:

The Warlock In Spite of Himself : the inexperience queen want to lead her troops in battle, which would have been terrible, so the "warlock" said that they had to make sure she couldn't sit astride a horse. One of her supporters was outraged, thinking the "warlock" meant sex, but it was clarified that he meant spanking. One bare bottom spanking later and the queen couldn't sit on her horse.

Arrows of the Queen (Mercedes Lackey's first book) includes a "country spanking" on the butt of the spoiled princess (or maybe it was just the threat of one).

Sharon Green - started off as mainstream sci fi/fantasy with some spanking, dropped the spanking at the insistence of her publisher, now self publishes her books with spankings in them.

Piers Anthony - several of his books have cute teenage girls getting spanked - or being threatened with spanking.

Off handed mentions of spankings in countless old children's books - including James and the Giant Peach.

Going back to "warm your bottoms", that was the phrase used regularly by my teacher the year I was 6. (1958-9). I always associate it with her...!

And did she ever do it? Oddly enough yes. Once I was sitting industriously reading when various other children had taken their work up to her, and I suddenly heard "and I don't like little girls who do that! [slap! slap! slap! ... slap! slap! slap!]" Apparently two girls had copied off each other and taken up their books consecutively with the same answers! The slaps were serious, although not particularly hard - and yes, they were on the (fully-clothed) bottom!

Little did I imagine how much more there would be in the future...!

Spanking references pop up in Wilbur Smith’s books. A Sparrow Falls has a wonderful description of a spanking. Administered to a 21 year old woman by her justifiably annoyed father.

And then there is the savage spanking in James Clavell's Tai-Pan which the lead character gives to his girlfriend, a bare bottom licking which leaves her rear end badly battered and bruised.
Westerns author Zane Grey had spankings in a couple of his books. In Lost Pueblo a spoiled Eastern flapper girl gets spanked by the man she later falls in love with. In The Hash Knife Outfit a cowgirl type gets spanked by her brother.
And of course the well-known school whipping in Tom Sawyer where Tom takes the blame for something his girl friend Becky Thatcher did , so that she doesn't get punished.

May I offer Richard Adams' Maia in which there s a whole chapter titled 'Meris Whipped'. Meris is a bed-slave who is punished with a strap whilst displayed quite lewdly on a specially carved spanking statue. Her odious owner sits by the side of her bum the whole time and has to be persuaded to have the punishment stop as the girl is valuable.

It's described so enthusiastically that I am sure the author enjoyed the scene in his head.

In Saul Bellow's first novel, 'Dangling Man', the lead character, Joseph, puts his bratty teenage niece Etta across his knee and spanks her after she's mocked him. It happens about 70 pages into the book.

It reads like a novel but its supposedly Barbara Hooton's account of her and her husband starting a dude ranch in New Mexico. Thats Hooton's book Guestward Ho!
Much of it is about the oftimes wacky or otherwise unforgettable people they get as guests.
One is a steamy, snobby on the prowl for males femme fatale Hooton dubs Miss Ladydog(because she didn't think she could get away with what she really wanted to call her in print,her words). Talks about how she comes on to everyone male, regardless of age or married status, struts around in "too-short shorts" or "her rear end prominently displayed in turquoise blue jeans."
She gets her comeuppance on an overnight camping trip when she is cruel to this other guest, a meek,quiet woman labelled Miss Mouse. She gets spanked by the cowboy ranch hand in charge of the outing who it turns out has fallen for Miss Mouse.
It tells of how everyone was woke up in the middle of the night by a loud commotion which turns out to be Bill,the cowboy, with Miss Ladydog over his knee, "spanking her for all it was worth while she shrieked"!
Anyhow they return home next day with Miss Ladydog all subdued and humble, makeup smeared, no longer twitching her rear as she walked( no doubt due to it being sore) and Barbara relieved that Bill is not marrying Miss Ladydog as she first thought when he announced he was getting married, but instead is marrying Miss Mouse.
Saw that it was a 60s Tv series. I wonder if it included that spanking in an episode.