Room 2D

By Johnny Chesham from Janus 34 You’d hardly have noticed it in the foggy winter night — a small brass name-plate reading  The Correction Club  in elegant italics. A tall man in a black cape and topper pulled energetically on the ornate Edwardian bell as a shaft of eerie gaslight fell across his features and the departing hansom cab rattled away, soon swallowed in the omnipresent silence. Slowly the door opened. ‘Good evening, Major,’ a solemn butler in black tails intoned. ‘Evening, Hodges!’ the man rapped and strode briskly into the hall. With a swirl he removed his cape which he thrust at the servant with his black silk hat. Curiously he retained a shiny black cane which had passed unnoticed in the voluminous folds. ‘The members are in the club-room, sir,’ Hodges announced and retired with a deep bow. The Major tapped his cane solidly into his left palm with a smart crack. Then with sudden vigour he mounted...

By Richard Manton from Janus 21 Richard Manton tells the whole truth  —  revealing an aspect of his own life which up till now has been a secret between the Editor and himself… Let me tell you the truth as simply as I can. Lesley: Behind Closed Doors   appeared in  Janus 13 . It was only a story — until the letters began to arrive. Many correspondents, as in R.W.’s Manton Answered ,  Janus 17 , deplored the fact that the law could not provide chastisement for a promiscuous young ‘libber’ who deserted marriage and kids. No surprise in that. What disconcerted me was the ease with which these readers saw Lesley as not, as I hoped they would assume, a fictional heroine but part of a continuing chapter in my own life. It seems pointless to conceal the facts now. What follows is my recollection of an encounter, vivid now as then, which introduced me to that interest which all Janus readers have in common...