This volume, an original work published by the redoubtable AKS Books, provides a thorough collection of short extracts from the literature, mostly from the Victorian literature, on the use of bound bundles of birch twigs for the purpose of castigation by beating the stripped nether regions. The punishment method was once common in education and judicial correction, but not only survives in an erotic context. AKS' motivation relates principally to this context, although the extracts given here relate to the other practices. As might be expected from its inclusion of an introduction by the established authority Ian Anthony, it is a superbly produced volume, well supplied with relevant illustrations. It should be an essential part of any book collection of aficionados of corporal punishment. ( )