Room 2D

The second instalment, from Blushes 7 Cecilia is a drama student who works in the evenings as an usherette at the local theatre. A daydreamer and dizzy character, she loses ten pounds of programmes and takings (with a little help from a malicious colleague) and finds herself across the theatre manager’s knee with her bottom bare for a brisk application of a wooden-backed clothes brush. The alternative was the sack, so Cecilia’s happy to take a spanking. Two nights later, the second part of her punishment is due. This time, with a cane. ----//---- As Cecilia walked into the usherettes’ room, she could see how surprised the other girls were to find her coming in to work. After losing ten pounds, they were sure she would have been dismissed. That had been Becky’s plan, and they’d all known about it. What they didn’t know was that Cecilia’s bottom would provide the evidence of why she hadn’t lost her job, though none of them would g...

Five more illustrations by Hardcastle from the Contents pages of Janus magazine. From Janus 83. A knowing look. From Janus 84. A lazy Sunday afternoon. From Janus 85. The Three Graces. From Janus 86. A harsh introduction. From Janus 87. Doubling up.

First in a four-part saga, from Blushes 6 As the usherettes queued up to get their issue of programmes, Cecilia was last in line, nearly late as usual. Her friends described her as ‘dizzy’. The front-of-house manager at the theatre where she worked in the evenings had warned her a couple of times about being ‘slapdash’: late reporting for work, gossiping with her colleagues, and on two occasions being short on her programme money. ‘But it’s only twelve pence.’ ‘It’s not the amount of money I’m worried about, Cecilia, it’s the principle of not managing to get your sums right when you’re giving change: you’re slapdash, you know.’ Roger, the manager, was fair to all the girls — most of them from the drama school not far from the theatre — and he preferred to use students as they were generally more reliable and even keen to do the work. They also didn’t complain about the less-than-generous wages the theatre paid. Cecilia’s t...

Part 2 from Janus 15 by Richard Manton Writer Richard Manton (the pseudonym of a well-known novelist) continues his recreation of just one day in the life of James Miles, the factual Master of the Hoo Union Workhouse at Rochester, Kent during the 19th century. This compelling, obsessive yet authentic account, closely based on records of the time, takes one deep into the world of workhouse discipline for girls and raises many topical questions relating to right-wing moves to get corporal punishment put back on the statute books.  Part one  of The Man with the Golden Rod appeared in Janus 14. When, as James Miles, you were acquitted at your trial, the justices were clearly on your side. Off you go, they said. Birch those young reformatory trollops long, hard, and often. Did you suspect that the justices had a vested interest in the verdict? No? What a trusting sort of chap you are. The French revealed the truth in such Edwardian hooks as  Etudes sur la Flage...