Kitten with a whip, and he loved it

From a review of Christopher Hitchens' memoir:

So not a particularly revealing autobiography, but, then, Hitchens is not a man given to introspection. Instead, it's more of an intellectual memoir, an account of how he shifted from the left to the right – or, rather, steadfastly remained true to his principles while all around him were abandoning theirs. The best anecdote concerns a meeting with Margaret Thatcher shortly after she'd been elected leader of the Conservative party. After a bit of friendly banter about Rhodesia, she tells him to bend over and whacks him on the bottom with a rolled up order-paper. As she walks away, she looks flirtatiously over her shoulder and mouths the words "Naughty boy". "I knew I had met someone rather impressive," he writes.