I have to class George Orwell’s wartime journalism as the most unusual source of a spanking startle that I’ve ever come across. Writing in Tribune in 1945, he discussed
…the Fairchild Family, which was written in 1813 and was for fifty years or more a standard book for children.
Here is Mrs Fairchild, telling the children how when she herself was a child she disobeyed orders by picking cherries in company with the servant girl:
“Nanny was given up to her mother to be flogged; and I was shut up in the dark room, where I was to be kept several days upon bread and water.”
Now, I wonder what happened to the servant girl?
Was the servant girl not the one called Nanny who was given up to her mother to be flogged? If not, then who the heck is Nanny and what did she do wrong?
I wondered that too, but – having studied various excerpts from the original text a few times, purely in the interests of linguistic analysis – I think I’m right in saying that Mrs Fairchild refers to herself in the third-person as “Nanny” in the book. But I’ve only been able to track down some badly-scanned copies online, so it’s on my list for future second-hand bookstore investigations!
Oh! Most confusing then, especially as she goes from saying “Nanny was”… to “and I was…”
If what you say is true then the little madam deserves to be flogged for her appalling writing style, never mind for picking cherries!