Room 2D

As predicted by Culver , here is an enhanced version of Late for School from Blushes Supplement 2. ‘Look, I’m awfully sorry but I really  must  go,’ said Nicola, ‘otherwise I’m going to be late for school.’ It was a fact and one not to be viewed with any equanimity. The consequence of missing Morning Assembly when you were a Sixth Former at Southfield County School for Girls was dire in the extreme. At the same time it was a decidedly humiliating thing to have to say when you were 17 and therefore grown up, and your companion was older still and thus  very  grown up, with such juvenile considerations as school assemblies long forgotten. They were seated in a green van which bore the legend  R Bulpitt & Son — Plumbers Merchants  on either side, parked in a quiet little cul-de-sac. Nicola Winfield, prettily blonde, and one Kevin Hicks, not pretty certainly, but with the kind of strong features tha...

Photo feature from Janus 74 and 75 It has been two years since Alice fell under the spell of the enigmatic Selina [ The Pleasing — Part I: The Handmaiden ] . Two years of submissive devotion to her female ‘Svengali’ have changed the girl. But now Selina has moved on, leaving Alice with a new-found confidence. Gone is the gauche late-developer, replaced by an assured and confident, blossoming young woman. Alice has become a model, the perfect job for her vain and admittedly narcissistic new character. Emotionally, she is more stable and less dependent on other people. She now makes her own decisions and working for herself is a rewarding experience. Something is missing from Alice’s new life, however, and of course she knows just what it is. She is constantly reminded on every photo-session she does. Being ordered and commanded by assertive photographers emphasises her need for a master. Someone who will relieve her o...

Story from Februs 25 by Colin Weaver When the Birley Institute was built in 1830, the wealthy businessmen who were financing it out of civic pride and the hope of a mention in the Honours List could not agree about its purpose. Should it be a museum, an art gallery or a library? The local firm of architects and builders who had got the contract under The Old Pals Act tried to please everyone, and the result was a queer, undecided mongrel of a building, like an oversized Nonconformist chapel on the outside, and with an interior which was such a maze of galleries and stairways and rooms and passages that a stranger should not enter without a native guide. At least, that is what Mr Mytton told Lucinda. After a month in Birley, the sardonic, middle-aged curator of the Institute was one of the few people she was on easy conversational terms with. The other teachers at St Jude’s were civil enough, but they were obviously suspendin...