Room 2D

From Janus 19 White as a sheet and petrified of what lies ahead, Polly Smyth returns home from school. Not at the usual time, however, and not to ‘home’ as most of us would think of it. Polly has been sent home by her headmistress in the middle of the day after being caught cheating in a mock exam. She was spotted by the invigilator furtively consulting a pocket French dictionary concealed in the waistband of her navy blue school skirt. Appalling this misdeed may be, but it is merely the latest and most serious in an endless series of offences Polly has committed against school rules. Because of the pathetic abolition of corporal punishment at Polly’s school, all her headmistress can do is send a misbehaving girl home and telephone her parents to explain the reason. Polly’s case is slightly different because she is an orphan who has lived with a succession of foster parents who found her too difficult to cope with. She ...

Five more illustrations by Hardcastle from the Contents pages of Janus magazine. From Janus 73. Trying not to show that she’s just had the strapping of her life. From Janus 74.  Heads or tails? From Janus 75.  The penitent. From Janus 76. Cornertime before the birch. From Janus 77. Contemplating the punishment to come.

From Uniform Girls 37 St Hilda’s College was a substantial Edwardian property situated on the edge of town and set in several acres of mature grounds and gardens. It had been a family residence until after the Second War when the combined effects of swingeing Labour Government taxation of the upper middle classes plus the virtual impossibility of getting and keeping domestic help had forced its sale. After one or two uncertain years it had taken on its present incarnation: a finishing college for girls. Such establishments are perhaps more rare nowadays than a generation or two ago but they are still in surprisingly strong demand. From girls’ parents rather than girls themselves. Parents in the unfortunate position of seeing Deborah or Melanie or whoever with little of tangible value for their time at school. Nothing with which to get them into a proper university or college certainly. So what are Deborah or Melanie to do: work ...