Room 2D

Story from Janus 56 by Richard Manton The romance of Leon and his two young mistresses ran the full course of the Cirque Eden’s summer season at Cabourg, in the last days of the  belle époque . Against a sea that was millpond-smooth, the white caps of the tents rose among the trees of the Parc des Princes. Throughout the well-kept streets of the fashionable resort the gaudy posters were filled by trumpets and horses, bare-legged girls and Bengal tigers. All day the summer tide lay glittering and languid beyond the sands. At dusk the coloured lamps of the promenade and the windows of the Grand Hotel shimmered and flickered like Aladdin’s treasure on the whispering water. From the white steam-yachts anchored in a line, a beat of music and the laughter of dinner parties carried to the esplanade, where the wives of brokers and lawyers paraded in dresses of butterfly elegance. At night the Parc des Princes belonged to...

A Richard Manton story from Janus 51 Where were you at 8.50am on 19 November 1985? If you were listening to Radio 4, you will have heard a spokesman for the Anti-Slavery Society talking of the new dangers which threaten the young and the beautiful. At first it sounded like a spoof, recalling all those old jokes about girls who accept sweets from strange gentlemen and end up ‘dancing on the tables in Port Said’. It is no spoof. Unemployment and recession in Western Europe have given a new glamour, for many girls, to the promise of well-paid and usually tax-free jobs as secretaries, dancers, club hostesses in parts of the world where the harem is a centuries-old part of culture. In an alarming revelation, quoted hereafter, the  Daily Telegraph estimated that a staggering 20% to 30% of all girls attracted by the bright lights and easy life of showbiz in such areas disappear into the sexual captivity of the harem. More asto...