Room 2D

A nice little one-off comic strip by Paula Meadows from Janus 20 Julie must be out of her mind, coming in from badminton practice at 1.24 am. She promised her parents she’d be home by nine o’clock at the very latest. They’re terrified someone might take advantage of their daughter, who never stops flaunting her lovely body. Tempers frayed, they’ve stayed up waiting for her once again. ‘YOU’RE FOUR AND A HALF HOURS LATE, JULIE!’ her father roars. ‘WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?’ — ‘She’s been out with a boy, I’m sure!’ her mother wails despairingly, ‘Where else could she have been?’ Both completely disbelieve her pathetic cover-story. Even at 17 Julie is not too old for really strict old-fashioned discipline. Her father is determined to make her bottom sting like fury this time for her lies, her cheek and her disobedience. Right now he’s a very angry man. ‘ You’re going to wish you’d never been born, young lady! ’ he yel...

From Janus 27 Francesca utterly loathes having to do any form of physical exercise. With a figure like hers it’s embarrassing trying to compete with her fellow pupils, plus she hates the exertion involved. She far prefers stuffing cream buns into her face — which she does at every available opportunity. At netball practice she hides around a corner hoping she won’t be noticed. But who’s this coming now but the Headmistress herself! ‘What’s this?! Trying to get out of netball practice again, Francesca? You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself, you lazy girl! This is the third time this term I’ve caught you hiding around here! Do you never stop eating, you disgusting creature?! Follow me into the gymnasium at once!!’ Not for the first time today, Francesca the school fattie looks and sounds as if she’s about to be sick. ‘Over the horse with you, you useless good-for-nothing lump of lard! You know perfectly well that cuttin...

A Chastising Service of the 1880s laid bare Historical recreation researched and written by  Richard Manton,  from Janus 38. On 26 July 1889, an advertisement appeared in the  Church Times . It was addressed to the parents of unruly daughters, to teachers of delinquent schoolgirls, to masters of female reformatories, and to those employers whose young women treated their superiors with insolence and contempt. BIRCH RODS. — These useful articles, for which there is an increasing demand, may be had from the depot. Of different sizes. — Mrs. CLAPP, St. John’s-road, Clifton. Mrs Clapp’s surname might have raised a smile, but it was as real as everything else about her. She ran a thriving business in the regency elegance of Bristol’s most prosperous suburb. Her advertisement might cause a flutter in the press of the 1980s but not a century ago when Victorian Values were firmly in the saddle. After all, if girls were to be birched, the birch-rods had to come from somewhere....