Happy New Year everyone, and thanks for your continued support of my blog. Throughout my life I’ve failed utterly at keeping a diary, and its only because people like you kindly visit and comment that I manage to stay interested in writing. Thank you for visiting!
In case this is your first visit, here is a very quick history of me, so you won’t have to bore your way though previous postings.
I’m an English girl who trained originally as a ballet dancer, got a) too tall and b) a bit too injury-prone to continue and so trained in classical acting instead, at a drama school in London.
I’d had fantasies about being tied up, ill-treated and (still sort of hard to admit) spanked all my life, and didn’t think anyone with similar interests existed. Then a poor Conservative MP in England was found dead in circumstances that suggested he’d been playing BDSM games which had gone wrong, and the teenage me thought ‘Oh, bloody hell, there were maybe two of us, but now one of us is dead’.
So I went into good old denial, joined The Campaign Against Pornography and decided not to date anyone.
After drama school, I started working as an actress and was approached after a theatre show by a photographer who suggested I tried modelling. So I did, and loved it so much that I ended up doing far more modelling than acting.
Then I discovered that there was BDSM on the internet, and started being offered bondage photography bookings. I was very happy, realised I wasn’t alone after all, and started having a splendid fun time.
One of the photographers I worked for was Hywel Phillips who ran a beautiful bondage site. Very gradually we became friends, and much later, we fell in love, moved in together and started running the site together too.
This Christmas was our third together in our house, and it was very lovely and peaceful. We opened our presents together, and my last one was from Hywel, a DVD of The Princess Bride which I’ve loved with a great passion for years and years, partly because I hoped someone would love me properly one day and marry me too (although I also kind of wanted to be held prisoner in a castle, in all honesty). I was very happy that Hywel had remembered how much I liked it, and thought Christmas was generally being a great success.
Then Hywel proposed to me.
And I cried all over him, thought I’d maybe misunderstood, cried more and then remembered I was supposed to say something.
So I said ‘yes’ and we’re going to get married later this year.
And I really am thoroughly happy and grateful that something so lovely could happen. I wish I could go back in time to my worried teenage self and show her this blog post, with the picture below, which Hywel took to celebrate our engagement (he didn’t want to be in it, even though I really, really tried). I’d love to explain to teenage-me that there ARE sane people who like playing at BDSM with the people they love, and that you don’t have to make a choice between liking BDSM and having conventional romance in your life too. I’d like her to know that being submissive doesn’t mean that you can’t choose to be with people who’ll respect you. And while I’m time-travelling, I’d like to visit the teenage Hywel and reassure him that he’ll one day find a girl who thinks bastinado sounds like a good idea.
I know there no magic, happy ever-afters, and I don’t expect 2012 to suddenly turn into a year of magical unalloyed joy, but I’m very happy to think that I’ll end this year married to a kind, clever, generous man who happens to be a dominant sadist (they seem to actually exist, teenage-me) and I hope there can be lots of romantic happiness for lots of other lovely people this year, kinky or not. If you’re reading, I hope one of them will be you 🙂
Once again, Congratulations! – Nick
Definitely – Beautiful ring and a beautiful lady… Congrats once again
Congratulations. Great news and great post 🙂 see you soon. x
Phil M
Beaming all over my face after reading this. I’m overjoyed for you both, and very, very glad that the two of you have found each other and make each other so deservedly happy! I hope that you end 2012 feeling just as soppy as you do right now 🙂
When I was a teenager, and for some time after, I thought a girl/woman like you could only be a fantasy. In fact, I could not dream up someone quite so amazing as you. Congratulations to you and Hywel on your engagement, and I wish you both a great new year.
Best wishes for a gorgeous highlight to a great 2012 for you both.
Beaming all over my face after reading this. I’m overjoyed for you both, and very, very glad that the two of you have found each other and make each other so deservedly happy! I hope that you end 2012 feeling just as soppy as you do right now 🙂
” I was very happy that Hywel had remembered how much I liked it, and thought Christmas was generally being a great success.
Then Hywel proposed to me.”
Awwww! That’s just adorable, what a sweet story.
Very many congratulations to you both.
Very sweet post; excellent, concise autobiography. Apparently we ALL feel alone when we first realize our kink; we all assume no one else could possibly want what we do (or the complement to what we do). Oddly, I can’t remember when I first realized there were others (I’d expect it to have been unforgettable, but apparently not!), though I’m quite sure it did not involve a dead MP.
I’m very happy for the both of you, and am healthily (non-destructively) jealous of him. He’s an exceptionally lucky man, but he earned his luck (if that makes any sense). I hope you will continue to be very happy together.
Michael (the one in Texas)
Just read this. Many congratulations and good luck to both you and Hywel. Andrew Y. OK, Figaro sends good wishes to Tigger and your toys too 🙂
Congratulations! You’re going to be such a lovely bride. I love all of your work both on RE and Only tease. Wish you and Hywel the best. And just wanted to say I love The Princess Bride, though since I am a guy always wanted to be the Westley character.
Greetings from Texas,
Forgive my asking here Ariel-Jane but I knew no other way to contact you. I remember you being a fight co-ornateor and, I believe, a swordswoman. I was wondering if you knew or ever had the pleasure of working with Bob Anderson?
I was never able to work on a film he was on much to my regret. His passing leaves a void that can never be filled.
What a beautiful, compelling story
A thrilling, life altering event to be cherished.
Powerful words –
“And then he proposed to me”
So how does one study to earn a doctorate in physics and then start his own business and meet a drop dead gorgeous woman who is smart and articulate too?
Best wishes for a beautiful wedding
I don’t think that’s a ‘soppy blogpost’ at all Amelia. It’s uplifting and a delight. I’m really happy for you and Hywel. (I was going to launch into a discourse about square and round pegs and finding proper holes for them …… but it’s too complicated and sounds a bit rude – so I won’t). I’ll just say terrific pictures and congratulations to both of you. It’s a little early in the day but here’s a toast: Happiness, health and prosperity to both of you for 2012 and future years too.
Wishing you love, luck and happiness. Big congrats xxx
Congratulations, Amelia, and all the best to Hywel and you! Of course you are right, getting married doesn’t prevent a year from having sad days as well, but it certainly is something wonderful to look forward to. I cross my fingers that the ceremony, the party and everything that has to do with the wedding will work out just the way the two of you hope it will. 🙂 May 2012 be a year full of joy and of kinky mischief for the two of you.
Oh, and I find your “quick history” post hilarious.
So very happy for both of you.You’re
a great match.All our best wishes to
you and Hywell! Now,get to planning
young lady!!
Congratulations Amelia!
It seems my last comment got lost somehow. So, I’ll try again:
Congratulations, Amelia, and all the best to Hywel and you! Of course you are right, getting married doesn’t prevent a year from having sad days as well, but it certainly is something wonderful to look forward to. I cross my fingers that the ceremony, the party and everything that has to do with the wedding will work out just the way the two of you hope it will. 🙂 May 2012 be a year full of joy and of kinky mischief for the two of you.
Oh, and I find your “quick history” post hilarious.
I’ve only just read this, and it’s the loveliest and most romantic, most joyous post one could ever hope to find. I know the two of you will be so happy together. And I hope that maybe some day a worried, kinky teenager might stumble across the post and take such encouragement from it.
So happy for you both.
I’ve only just seen this; so sorry I’m late but please accept my most sincere congratulations. I’m sure that you’ll love being married, and I’m glad you’ve found a kindred soul.
Great taste too! Both the film and the original book of The Princess Bride are wonderful; warm, witty and fun. I showed my 13 year old daughter the film for the first time on Christmas Eve, and she loved it as much as her Mom and I do.
Anyway, best of luck for a totally happy future.
Tim
My Congratulations!!!
Hello, I’m korean.
I have read your blog for a year,
and it is very interesting to me.
You are beautiful and more beautiful when you are tied up^^.
I have learned a lot of things about BDSM world in your story. thank you.
Congratulations for your engagement.
I hope you have a happy life with your husband forever.!!
Congratulations to you both: and I hope Hywel is already dreaming up an extra special discipline/restraint experience on your honeymoon for you!
I came here merely to praise you, and am thrilled to see what good things the new year has brought – every happiness to you and your boss!
But I feel for you on seeing that comment a little while back; life damages all of us, that’s its job, but when that hurt is combined with native stupidity, the misery spreads out. Hopefully you’ve washed it all out of your hair long since.
Anyway ~ I wanted to say thank you for being the epitome of English CP. The days of Janus and top-shelf books of mysterious promise is long gone; girls mutilate their beauty with tattoos, and CP is just a sexual version of a video game.. yep, I’m a dinosaur and I know it, but at least there’s still you.
– and what you said about your early fantasies; for what little it’s worth, it gave me these lines for my latest book:
‘From age five and up through adolescence and her teens, all her inner flights of love and romance, from captive princess in the dungeon to tripping down the aisle in white, were predicated either on a Lancelot who would melt her with his kisses and guide her firmly with his hand, or on a Blackbeard who would keep her as his private pet, entirely subjugated to his will and slavishly adoring.
It was lovely to be all grown up, sophisticated, intellectual, cultured, but by itself, still not enough. But now, as she waited for her boyfriend with her nose tucked in the corner, the adult and the child in her embraced and reunited.’
Hope that reminds you of someone.. 🙂
Congratulations! I’m very happy for you.
Oh how beautiful and romantic. My love to you both. I have a copy of the Princess Bride too and I’m a 60year old man!!!
J
Very happy for you, Ariel !
Blessing from France.
Congratulations! Well-deserved, both of you.
May this union be for eternity.
Amelia congrats to both of you,he is a very lucky young chap to win you lovey ,love and spanks,Timxx
Goodluck, Amelia, I hope you will both be very happy. I have been reading a series of novels by Marion Chesney featuring a Lady Rose Summer. She’s a great girl and reminds me very much of you. I’m sure you could play the part to perfection, if there were to be a film version! There is no spanking in the books but the following line made me immediately think of you -“That uppity little minx needs a taste of the birch” fumed Lady Blenkinsop.
Congratulations Amelia! I am so happy for you! You will be an amazing beautiful princess bride. Love and hugs – oh and lots of spanks! Sabrina
Very late but congratulations to you both, what a lucky chap. I’m sure that you will both be very happy