Miss Martindale

Marianne Martindale (also known as Catherine Tyrell, Mari de Colwyn, Mary Scarlett and Mary Guillermin[1]) is an English writer and columnist. As Miss Martindale, she was a prominent public face of Aristasia, an all-female subculture inspired by the Traditionalist School and early twentieth-century culture.[2]

Biography

From 1982 to 1992 Martindale was one of the leaders of the Silver Sisterhood, a Goddess-worshiping new religious movement described as a cult,[1] based in Burtonport, County Donegal in Ireland. The group is known for creating early text adventure video games such as Bugsy[3] and Jack the Ripper,[3] the first game to be given an '18' rating.[3][4][5]

Martindale co-founded the Wildfire Club publishing house and edited a collection of stories titled Disciplined Ladies.[2] She received national attention in the British press in the 1990s for her advocacy of corporal punishment.[2] Martindale believed in corporal discipline as spiritual and purifying.[6] Due to the use of caning among the Silver Sisterhood and its prominence in the group's later years, the group was described as fetishistic in nature.[7]

Martindale always maintained that, as an Aristasian, she was neutral on matters of "Tellurian" (Earth) politics. Martindale claimed to be a royalist and imperialist, but with loyalty only to the Aristasian monarchy and empire. Despite this, she regularly wrote letters to John Tyndall, a neo-Nazi activist and the founder of the British National Party.[2] Additionally, antisemitic and far-right publications were found in St Bride's, the residence of the Silver Sisterhood, after they left in 1992.[8]

Martindale was convicted of assault in 1993 for the caning of a young woman at St Bride's.[1] In 1999 she married English film director John Guillermin. Martindale was featured in a 2022 BBC Radio Ulster podcast about St. Brides, in which she describes herself as working currently as a marriage therapist in California and having adopted an adult son and two of his friends.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Himelfield, Dave (19 November 2022). "Goddess-worshipping women's cult once lived in Yorkshire's trendiest valley". Yorkshire Live. Retrieved 20 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "Miss Kinky Denies Right Wing Smear". This Is Local London. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b c "The Mystery of St Bride's". No. 142. "GamesTM". December 2013. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Jack the Ripper Review", Sinclair User, January 1988
  5. ^ "Dracula unbound: The story behind the first 18 certificated video game". Eurogamer. 1 March 2015. Archived from the original on 3 March 2015.
  6. ^ Rosie Millard (3 March 1995). "Whips? Canes? Silly Monkeys! - Life and Style". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  7. ^ "The Mystery of St Bride's". No. 142. "GamesTM". December 2013. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Neo-Nazi leaflets found in gracious ladies' academy where caning was on the curriculum Inside the secret world of the sisters of St Bride's". The Sunday Telegraph. 3 January 1993. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  9. ^ McKay, Conor (29 October 2022). "Assume Nothing - The Secrets of St Brides, Episode 4: The Headmistress". BBC Radio Ulster.
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