Obituary from The Telegraph:

Elaine Dundy, the American writer who has died aged 86, shot to the top of
the best-seller lists in 1958 with The Dud Avocado, a novel which she wrote in
an attempt to save her marriage to the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan; but her
literary success became an added source of friction in a relationship that was
already fraught owing to Tynan's fondness for the lash.

. . . A few years into their marriage, he told his wife he was
getting bored with their lovemaking and presented her with two books on
sadomasochistic sex. Discovering that she was "up against a revered British
institution", she agreed to try – but it was not a success. Their first session
ended with her grabbing the schoolmaster's cane and breaking it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1933071/Elaine-Dundy.html

An obituary which perhaps could have been more generous regarding her work.