Springora’s book, The Consent, tells the tale of how the author was seduced as a teenager by a famous novelist who was in his fifties. But it also traces the stages of a personal destruction. Seduced, then dominated and exploited, young Vanessa falls under his control and will almost die from it. Her story raises an interesting problem about adult-child relationships: can she really have been a victim if she, as she says and explains, did consent to that relationship? There was indeed a form of extreme violence that subjected her to total domination, but it was also established through the victim’s enthusiastic consent.