Richmond Paper Plus hosted a colourful evening celebrating erotic novel series Fifty Shades Of Grey last night, featuring a talk from professional dominatrix My Lady Felicity, spanking demonstrations and lashings of sparkling wine.

Widely dubbed ‘‘mummy porn’’, the phenomenally popular Fifty Shades books by E.L. James describe a steamy romance between troubled billionaire Christian Grey and virginal literature student Anastasia Steele.

Felicity Maera-Wallace, the dominatrix, opened by answering questions from the crowd about the world of BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism and masochism) before explaining how to use some of her equipment.

Online sex shop Peaches and Cream had donated items for goody bags taken home by attendees, and sponsors House of Travel, Whiplash salon and Esquires provided vouchers for spot prizes.

Rope-tying and flogging techniques were demonstrated on ‘‘maid’’ Val, who Mrs Maera-Wallace brought along for the evening. Her colleague Carlos also made an appearance, wearing a full-face PVC ‘‘gimp’’ mask to administer 20 lashes to Val in front of the audience. They gave her a round of applause afterwards.

‘‘Nelson is a kinky little place,’’ said Mrs Maera-Wallace, estimating there could easily be ‘‘a couple of hundred’’ people with an interest in the fetish scene around the region.

‘‘This is very vanilla,’’ she said of the Richmond gathering. ‘‘People have got their clothes on.’’

Vanessa Hatton took longer than she thought to reach the event from her home in Ngatimoti, and got a literal smack on the hand from the dominatrix as punishment for being late.

‘‘It was a bit of a surprise,’’ said Ms Hatton. ‘‘Now that I think about it, it shouldn’t have been.’’

She said she loved the evening and had ‘‘great fun’’.

‘‘It’s nice to get out and do something different.’’

Motueka resident Tanya Goodman said her four friends had taken her to the evening without telling her what it involved.

‘‘They just said it would be an adventure,’’ she said. ‘‘I mean, I’ve read the first two [Fifty Shades] books, but now my eyes have been opened up.’’

Mrs Maera-Wallace’s mother Christine was also in the audience with her hearing-assistance dog Zoe. Despite being aware of her daughter’s career in sex work ‘‘from the beginning’’, she said she found the talk very interesting.

‘‘I’ve learned things about her I never knew before.’’

A bookbinder by trade, Mrs Maera-Wallace’s mother was in the process of putting together a line of custom-made whips and floggers to manufacture in Nelson. She said producing fetish equipment was commercially attractive as it was a specialised market with great demand and few suppliers.

‘‘Felicity asked me to mend one of hers, and I’ve got heaps of leather as a bookbinder so I thought maybe I can use it.’’

Paper Plus part-owner Leanne Pressman came up with the idea for the evening after watching Youtube videos of similar events in America. She said the chain was interested in rolling out more events nationally, but was waiting to see how the first evening panned out.

‘‘We do other Books and Bubbles nights, but this one just seemed too good to pass up. And I really enjoyed doing the research.’’

Popular demand has already made sure another evening is on the cards, with half of the 50 tickets pre-booked.