Obituary: Jenny Diski

She described herself as "contrary-minded", delighted in breaking taboos and never recognised any boundaries to her imagination. When her first novel Nothing Natural, about a sado-masochistic sexual affair, was published in 1986, the poet Anthony Thwaite called it "the most revolting book I've ever read" and she was banned from the Islington feminist bookshop, Sisterwrite, on account of her heroine's predilection for being abused and beaten by a balding old sadist who turns up with a whip in a plastic bag. Yet its frankness and fearlessness, together with its powerful atmosphere of suspense, won her favourable reviews from many critics.