Stephanie Clifford-Smith is a travel and food writer based in Australia.
She writes a weekly Three of a Kind restaurant column in The Sydney Morning Herald, reviews for the Herald’s Good Food Guide and is co-editor of Sydney Eats and the EatStreets website.
She is the author of two non-fiction books - A Marvellous Party, a biography of celebrity chef Bernard King, and her latest work, Kink: A Straight Girl's Investigation, out now.
Kink: A Straight Girl's Investigation
From bondage parties and peeping toms to plushies and foot worshippers ... and beyond - Kink is one woman's sometimes mind-boggling, mostly hilarious, always fascinating investigation into sexual fetishes in the 'burbs.
Straight girl Stephanie Clifford-Smith was fascinated by fetishes.
What happens the first time someone with a sexual fetish shares it with their lover? Say you had a kink, something you knew was really unusual. Would you risk your lover running screaming from the room by asking if they'll let you lick their eyeballs or would you find some oblique way of bringing it up, perhaps when they were struggling with a stray lash? Or would you just go behind their back and find a willing partner on the internet?
Are sexual fetishes widespread throughout the community, or are they only the domain of a kinky minority? And how has kinkdom changed over time?