The punishment position in pretty much all of my early spanking fantasies was the ever-so traditional “touching toes” (with just one minor variant: “holding ankles”).

Furniture then started to creep in – always high-backed, plain, wooden chairs. This sort of thing, for example:

My imagined headmasters’ offices then acquired robust old leather sofas (with arms over which girls could bend), and my fantasy housemasters were persuaded to clear the piles of paper from their desks to make space for punished pupils.

But here’s the strangest thing: I honestly can’t recall the last time when, playing a scene, I made a young lady touch her toes (rather than having her bent over a school desk or table or the end of a bed) – partly, I suspect, since many play partners struggle to assume said position comfortably (which, one suspects, was always actually rather its point). And we don’t even own a plain wooden chair. I think it’s time for a return to traditional values… and for a chair-hunting trip around our local antique shops.