The long Journey: Chapter 1

As I came to in the dark I felt my head pressing against a cold floor and ropes biting into me while an aching bruise on my left upper arm made its presence felt. I could move nothing; see nothing.

I had been into bondage for a long time, not that I realised it then. At the age of 5 I liked to get captured and tied up while playing cowboys and Indians. Later I got a kick out of prisoner of war stories. All this was forgotten when I ventured onto the London scene. So many places to go, people to meet. Until one day I was whiling away some time with a friend in a sex shop. He came over to me with a grin on his face: “I can’t believe this,” he said and passed me a photo magazine of young nubile naked oriental boys bound tightly together in groups with thick ropes. While he sniggered I stiffened. I put it down in a hurry but went back the following day. I couldn’t find the magazine but I bought a copy of Larry Townsend’s Leatherman’s Handbook. I studied it avidly over the next few days, learning the ‘etiquette’ of the leather clubs until I resolved to try them out. I bought a leather jacket and cap from Eagle Leathers and black industrial boots from Camden Town and tried out a couple, until I settled on one in Borough which had been a pub, had real ale, an island bar and a cute friendly barman with a tawny beard and camos.

Sitting next to me at the bar one night was a Geordie. He was no oil painting but the north-eastern friendliness and having the same name as me soon broke the ice and he bought me a drink. When it came to my turn he said mine would be a cheap round. All I had to do was take his pint mug and fill it up in the toilet and bring it back. When I went in there was a naked, pink, shivering youngster knelt on the floor but I wasn’t able to oblige him as I only had enough piss to fill the mug. As the evening drew to a close Geordie invited me to go with him to a party in the suburbs on the Saturday night. “It will cost you £10 and some cans of beer and you should find it an eye-opening experience.” I jumped at it and was ready and waiting in my gear at the agreed spot where we were picked up and taken to an ordinary council flat at the back of beyond.