16th November 2015
“English Madam” Cynthia Payne dies (dailymail.co.uk).
“Britain’s best known madam Cynthia Payne—who was nicknamed Madame Cyn—has died aged 82, her family said. Payne first hit the headlines in 1978 when police raided a sex party at her home to find elderly men paying luncheon vouchers for lewd entertainment.
“Her life was immortalised in two films, one starring Julie Walters and several books, including ‘An English Madam’.”
In the immortal words of Emily Lloyd who played the role in the other based on her memoirs in 1987’s Wish You Were Here, “Up yer bum”.
“Family friend Kevin Horkin described her as ‘a national treasure’ and an ‘extremely colourful archetypal English eccentric’. Mr Horkin added: ‘She was a person with a very big heart. She is someone who epitomised the phrase ‘what you saw is what you got’.”
Being exactly what the tabloid press at the time got, in every elderly gent spanked and bound lingerie-clad manner they could imagine.
“For months afterwards, the media would write of queues of middle aged and elderly men waiting to exchange their ‘luncheon vouchers’ for food, drink, friendly chat, striptease shows, and a trip upstairs with the girl of their choice. Vicars, MPs and lawyers were amongst those who considered me to be the best hostess in London.”
RIPCynthiaPayne (Twitter).
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