Thanks to our friend Bessie for pointing us towards a book in the “Horrible Histories” series. These are aimed at younger readers, but the volume entitled “The Vile Victorians” seems destined for a place on many a kinky bookshelf. For example, there’s a page showing four pictures of headmasters holding straps, and a scared looking pupil, hand outstretched, explaining that:

“Some vile Victorian teachers didn’t believe in talking to pupils to find out why they did something wrong.  They simply punished them… Can you work out which headmaster is going to use his strap to teach this boy a lesson?”

The very next page had an ‘activity’ for the book’s young readers; to give just a couple of examples:

“William Shaw was a headmaster at a Victorian school in Yorkshire.  He was famous for treaing his pupils badly… What punishment would you give each one?

1. Missing Sunday church, punished by…
a) a severe talking to by the priest and detention while you listen to the sermon you missed
b) a beating with a strap
c) doing extra work for the church- polishing the candlesticks, digigng a few graves, copying out of the Bible.

Joy for perverts everywhere: the correct answer is “B”.

Question 4 asked for the correct punishment for “Being late for school”. The options were as follows:

a) having your name written in the Punishment Book so you may not get a job when you leave school
b) being hit over the hand with a cane
c) both

According to the book, the period punishment would be C. Quite right too.

Why did I never have books like this at that age?!

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Now you can buy a book of the best entries from "The Spanking Writers".