Room 2D

By Richard Manton from Janus 34. By popular demand, Lesley resumes her disciplinary adventures from  Janus 13  &  21 . The house with the green verandah stood at the end of an elegant late-Georgian terrace, among tree-lined residential streets high above the city. Its classical façade was hidden by the screen of chestnut trees dividing the main road from the crescent of the private terrace-drive. There was nothing to indicate who lived in the house or what use it might be put to. Early on most afternoons several young women would arrive at intervals — never the same young women. Later on, one or two men would follow — never the same men. It was rare to see one of the girls leaving on foot or bicycle. As a rule they were collected by taxi or private car from the front door. The blouses, ties, and short pleated skirts of some of the girls suggested fifth-formers arriving for a lesson in deportment. Others, in...

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...