Charm, but offensive

The things Tony practised on his wives were essential to feed his writing. He wrote from experience whenever he could. He needed the authentic touch. When writing to titillate fellow sadists, creative imagination was one route, but there was simply no substitute for the real thing. In the periods between wives though, he delved deep into the more unpleasant regions of pornography, that and engage the services of members of the ‘meat trade’, most of whom would subsequently wish that he hadn’t.

He was an extremely unpleasant character, but to anyone who met him casually, Tony Dawson was charm personified.