Room 2D

Photo-story from Janus 83 featuring lovely Page 3 girl Vida Garman as Dulcie. Pushing a broom. Dulcie in overalls. Tat. Sweat. Hair tied back with a scrappy ribbon. The floorboards and walls are bare. Stark. He will bark at me: ‘Work!’ He looks through the door into the room. Sees her stooping, lacklustrely prodding the bristles against the floor. Poor! Idle! What are muscles and sinews for? A roar: ‘Put some effort into it!’ He marches in and stands severe behind her ‘You’re not even trying! I get the impression you hardly care! But you’d better, my girl — oh, you’d better!’ She reapplies herself to her task, leans down, shoves the broom a little harder. Having him standing there like that, acutely critical of her every movement, makes her legs feel watery and her whole self cumbersome and clumsy. Under his censorious glare Dulcie strives to do what she feels is her best, making little grunting sounds to show hi...

Photo-story from Janus 116 Private Saffron James, 19, stands to attention with her bugle under her arm, nervously awaiting the arrival of a superior. When the door opens, the man is a stranger, drafted in from another regiment to conduct her disciplinary interview. Like the clothing, furniture and accommodation she has lived with for the past eight months, he smells of standard-issue army property: functional and unadorned. ‘Your cases are packed?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because Sergeant Morris said I should be prepared for instant discharge, sir. He said I am not shaping up as a soldier and that if I only want to play pretty music, I should go to the Conservatoire, sir.’ Tears sting her eyes but she strives not to shed them. ‘So you want to be a musician?’ ‘Yes, sir. I joined the army to improve my playing and get real experience of life that I wouldn’t get at music college.’ ‘And has this been proven to be th...