Excavations in my office; I found a scrap of paper from the hotel Haron and I stayed in on honeymoon, some time back now. Awwwwwwwww :-)

I’d scribbled down three story ideas, with which I’d entertained my new bride. Just snippets, no more. There was the school that worked on the principle of demerits for any misdemeanours: ten demerits would get you send to the Head. Girls on eight or nine would clearly be impeccably behaved.

Then there was the school groundsman, responsible for tending the sports pitches. He lived on a cottage in the school grounds, alone with his bright young daughter. The school staff had all known her since she’d been a little girl; she was almost ‘one of the family’. When she reached an appropriate age, she was awarded a scholarship to the school – and then fell immediately in with the ‘wrong crowd’ and had to be caned for misbehaviour in her first week…

And we speculated about a two-part punishment form. The teacher would fill in the top half with details of the offence; the girl would be despatched to the Headmaster, who would complete the remainder, to be handed back to the original teacher by the girl when she returned, caned, to the classroom.