Caught smoking

Our recent trip to Windsor turned up another opportunity for our kinky minds to corrupt the scenes around us.

I do hope that the schoolmaster in charge of the group of French students gathered in a gang on the benches beside the castle noticed their behaviour. Specifically, that is, that one of the young ladies had reached into her bag to bring out a packet of cigarettes, lighting two – one for herself, and one for her friend.

They’d not have realised that he’d been watching from the window of the Starbucks opposite. They’d have been surprised later that evening in the hostel to be told to stay behind, when the rest of the girls had been sent to bed.

He could send them straight home, he explained. Ask them to report to the Headmaster, who would inevitably have suspended them for a week with a letter sent to each family. Needless to say, neither girl’s parents knew that she smoked – that she did, and that she’d lied about the fact, would be a matter of grave concern. And the two best friends had confided enough secrets in the past to know that the consequences would be swift and severe.

Alternatively, they might like to know that the hostel’s manager understood that girls on school trips sometimes misbehaved. A leather strap was kept for just these circumstances: would the girls prefer to take their punishment now, and save any mention from being made of the incident on their return to France?

Adventure worth a flogging

While writing about birching of juveniles, W.A. Elkin (whom I quoted recently), shares an anecdote that made me giggle:

“Aldershot: Boy got away from an Approved School; stole food for a wigwam where he played at Red Indians. Birched! A fortnight later up for the same offence with two others. Birched. Fortnight later two of them broke out again.”

This episode could be so appropriate if copied for a role-play scenario. When I play a reformatory girl, I quite often struggle to find an offence that would be both appropriate to the era, not so terrible that I couldn’t imagine myself committing it, and serious enough for a birching.

Thank you, unknown Aldershot boys. I’ll think of you when I’m repeating your trick.

Elkin suggests that the boys kept breaking out because –

“…most boys are terrified of being thought cowards. The one way they can keep up their prestige and prove to their friends that they are “tough guys” not to be intimidated, is by committing another offence.”

That may well be true, but in this case I think that they simply decided that the adventure was totally worth the trouble they were going to get into when they’re caught.

Called before the prefects

Realism matters, when it comes to role-play: one has to be able to able to relate to (and feel confident in) whatever character one’s assuming for the scene. In school scenes over the years, therefore, I’ve always played a Housemaster – in my thirties, it would have been unrealistic to yet occupy the Headmasterial chair. (And yes, Smudge, I am now getting to an age where promotion could probably beckon).

Now, today, Haron’s heading off to play a scene with friends. A prefectorial scene. Which also wouldn’t work for me at all. Although I was a prefect at a public school myself (‘back in the old days’!), and the group who are playing includes many dear friends, I can’t reasonably relate to the character of an 18-year-old schoolboy. The beard doesn’t add to my credibility in the role either. (And, in any case, I shall be delightfully otherwise engaged during the day).

So Haron will be dressed neatly in her school uniform; called before the prefects; dealt with most severely. Twenty miles or so away, I shall be thinking of her during the day – wondering at what point my girl is being disciplined, deriving vicarious pleasure from the thought of the cane strokes that may be being applied at that very moment.

And then she’ll return to the hotel. Where her guardian will be waiting. He’ll quickly realise that she’s been in trouble at school. Will be astonished and disappointed to hear that she’d been so badly behaved that corporal punishment had had to be imposed. Will send her to get ready for bed. Will expect an explanation, before reminding her: “You know the rules.”

And she will: that a caning at school inevitably results in a thrashing at home. His belt will come off; she’d lift her nightdress and bend over the end of the bed. He’ll observe her marks, before adding his own…

… hard…

… before we flick out of character, and my girl is back, and we hug while she spills out her secrets from the day’s scene.

The End(ell Street) is nigh

A kinky friend’s introducing me to another of her pervy acquaintances one evening next week. It was only logical that we should arrange to meet in Coffee, Cake and Kink.

What I didn’t realise when we agreed our plan for the evening would that this would prove to be my last visit to CCK. They’ve been locked in a battle with their landlords for the past two years, and finally announced yesterday that they’ll soon be closing the doors of their café and gallery.

The wonderful team at CCK have touched the lives of so many in the scene over the past few years. They created a wonderful space which became a natural focal point for those with kinky leanings, and their friendly welcomes have helped so many to feel at ease with their preferences. (“Hey, we can’t be that odd if there’s a café for people like us – filled with all of these nice folks”).

And now we’ve lost our safe haven: London life will be much the poorer without them. I mourn their passing, and know already that future walks down Endell Street will be bitter-sweet – smiling at the memories of so many wonderful visits with cuddles enjoyed, confidences shared, inspiration found – whilst wishing they were still there.

The CCK team will still be online, though, and hope that the café may be back in the future:

Whether or not Coffee, Cake & Kink comes back as a social space depends largely on the success of the online shop, and how well we are able to demonstrate that the loss of the premises has not diminished your faith in us. So far you have voted with your feet, now you can vote with your mouse! With every order placed online, a deposit for new premises builds up and our customers show that they want us back.

I’ll be heading over to www.coffeecakeandkink.com once I’ve finished writing, to find something to order as a gesture of support. I’d urge you, if you can possibly summon up the spare cash, to do likewise. At the very least, why not make a mental note that if you’re buying kinky Christmas presents later in the year, you’ll look at CCK’s site first?

But I can’t help but feel that visiting them in Endell Street next week will bring a tear to my eye – rather like writing this post just has.

To all at CCK: our love, our thanks, and our very best wishes.

Near-naked amidst the shoppers

It’s a very good thing that Her Majesty didn’t wander down from Windsor Castle into the town the other Sunday to do some shopping in her local department store. For, much to our amusement, the shop was adopting a somewhat novel approach to promoting its new range of men’s underwear: two young hunks, strolling around the menswear section floor naked save for a pair of trendy boxer shorts.*

Fortunately, the experiment was also being tested in the women’s lingerie department. (We had to check, of course, in the interest of research). But the cutie they’d selected for her semi-naked parade was rather more covered than the boys, being permitted the modesty of a white nightdress.

We immediately realised why: when she’d changed that morning, the department manager had noticed a fresh set of weals, clearly visible beneath the skimpy knickers that she was supposed to model. He’d questioned her; she’d blushed: daddy had only given her permission to stay out until eleven the evening before, and her post-midnight return had not gone down well.

She’d been sent straight to bed, his “we’ll deal with this after breakfast” ringing ominously in her ears. And after the morning’s marmalade had been carefully tidied away, the china washed and dried, he’d accompanied her upstairs. Her protests would be ignored: “You should have thought of that before you chose to disobey me last night.”

He’d unbuckled then slid out his thick leather belt; she’d slid down her jeans and knickers, and adopted that oh-so-familiar but thankfully-irregular posture: bent over the end of her bed, face buried in the soft duvet, which absorbed her tears as the sharp strokes seared.

The store’s general manager would be less sympathetic, of course: “We’ve paid her to model the new underwear” would be his refrain, and the nightdress would have to be removed. The afternoon’s clientele would be quite united, both in their curiosity at the mortified girl’s marks and in their murmured agreement that she was fortunate to be corrected so by her loving father.

* As a means of improving sales to their male customers, this did have a fatal flaw – most guys heading straight in the opposite direction as soon as the two semi-naked Adonises approached!

Bracing herself for the whipping

I stayed with Abel in a London hotel yesterday, waiting for him to do his day’s work before we could do something cultural (or kinky, or both) in the evening. He departed at his usual (ungodly) hour, and I delayed going out to get breakfast until the rush hour crowd finished rushing.I went out at about 9.15, and the street lined with office buildings was pleasantly empty. As I cut across a courtyard towards a cafe, I saw the last of the office plankton running for the glass doors and faux-marble vestibules.

In the middle of the courtyard there in a nest of stone benches. They were empty but for one young woman in a smart grey suit. She sat with her legs crossed, dangling one of her sensible shoes off her toes and sucking on a cigarette. She had the glassy stare of somebody far, far away, and a frown of somebody who…

…was waiting for her punishment, actually. Well do I know that look.

It was all law firms and financial companies around there; the woman’s clothes looked expensive enough that she could have worked in any of those. Perhaps, she had screwed up on a big case, setting it back through an avoidable mistake. Maybe she’d miscalculated on accounts.

Whatever it was, her immediate superior – perhaps, the CEO himself – was summoning her to his office this morning. She had a 9.30 appointment, and was told to clear her diary for at least an hour.

She knows what this means. Their company is notorious for their cutting-edge management practices; she had signed a release when they took her on. She knows that all managers have a particular implement of discipline in their desk drawer. What it is, depends on personal preference and physique, but she knows that her own manager keeps an old razor strop with fraying edges.

When she goes in, she will have a stern lecture. She would have to take off her jacket, raise her skirt and bend over his desk. Her underwear would stay chastely on – nobody wanted to be sued for sexual harassment here! – but even the full cotton knickers she wore specifically for the event, would be no help when the strop cracks against her bottom.

She would get six strokes in the first instance. After that, she would be ordered into the corner, where she would have to gather her thoughts before sitting down at the desk and typing out what she thought she had done wrong, and how she would avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Finally, chastened, embarrassed and still in pain from her whipping, she would be back over the desk for the final dose of the strop: six more, to make sure the lesson has sunk home.

So you see, she knows exactly what’s going to happen as she sits there on the bench, alone. The company makes no secret of the discipline procedure, and she has studied it very carefully. There is no way out.

But in the meantime she sits in the courtyard, alone. She is counting minutes. In too short a time, she’ll be counting strokes.

Whipped with the knout

Once more unto the Percy Anecdotes from the 1840s, this time to explore the flogging of a female convict in Russia:

Percy AnecdotesThe knout whip is fixed to a wooden handle a foot long, and consists of several thongs, about two feet in length, twisted together, to the end, on which is fastened a single tough thong of a foot and a half in length, tapering towards a point…

When the philanthropic Howard was in Petersburgh, he saw two criminals, a man and a woman, suffer the punishment of the knout. They were conducted from prison by about fifteen hussars and ten soldiers. When they had arrived at the place of punishment, the hussars formed themselves into a ring round the whipping-post; the drum beat a minute or two, and then some prayers were repeated, the populace taking off their hats.

The woman was first taken, and after being roughly stripped to the waist, her hands and feet were bound with cords to a post made for the purpose. A servant attended the executioner, and both were stout men. The servant first marked his ground, and struck the woman five times on the back; every stroke seemed to penetrate deep into her flesh; but his master thinking him too gentle, pushed him aside, took his place, and gave all the remaining strokes himself, which were evidently more severe.

The woman received twenty-five blows… ‘I (continues Mr. Howard) pressed through the hussars, and counted the number as they were chalked on a board for the purpose.’

I don’t actually know any Russians, but Ukraine is next door. Haron…

Acting out a paddling

Abel called me in great agitation the other day, having discovered the existence of “High School Musical”.

He wanted to know whether there London staging included a paddling scene. I had to tell him I had no idea, but probably not.

He didn’t sound too disappointed, and shared an idea that any future director of this play – or actually, any play that may conceivably involve a paddling of a character in the ensemble – may appreciate.

The role of the punished character should be given each night to the actress who had performed the worst the night before.

The decision would be announced to the cast just before the play is due to start. Thus, any girl who felt she hadn’t danced or sang as well as she could have done, would have a rather unpleasant sleepless night before the following day’s performance.

“The Brush”: a spanking poem

A reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, kindly sent us a piece of their writing recently. We thought you might enjoy it, so with their permission we present possibly the finest spanking poem I’ve read:

The Brush

He sat down squarely on the red settee.
The lass, amazed, was hauled across his knee,
Her heels in air, her nose against the plush,
And from her hand he plucked the antique brush
Which, while she needled him with jibes and mocks,
She had been pulling through her auburn locks.
Now, with her bottom perilously flaunted,
She wondered if she ought not to have taunted.
She thought he might be thinking to remind her
She should have put such childish spite behind her,
And as things lay she felt that her behind
Was all too likely where he would remind.
But she was much too dear for him to hurt,
And he too kind – then, oh, why did she blurt
“You wouldn’t dare!” and watch, with widening eyes,
His hand, reflected, and her hairbrush rise.

Now with his left arm firmly round her waist
He felt that he and she were better placed
To bring the spat she’d started to an end.
Her posture showed her ready to attend
While he expressed his full and frank response,
A task he thought he’d best begin at once.
Thin cotton slacks, but tauter than a drum,
Revealed each pliant contour of her bum.
With petulance she wriggled her trapped hips
And then that fateful phrase escaped her lips.
He sensed a thrill, a tremor down her back;
Her bottom winced beneath the pending smack.

“All right, my girl,” he said, “enough’s enough.
Or did you think I wouldn’t call your bluff?
You little minx, it’s time you were controlled.
I told you plainly once, you’re not too old
To spank, like daddy should have done before.
And no brat ever needed spanking more.”
(Too true: the strap or rod that should have taught her
Had never striped the misbehaving daughter;
The spoiled young princess never touched her toes
To have her pert bum printed shades of rose.)
“Your time has come, young lady, and now you’re – ”
And down he brought the hairbrush, hard and sure –
“About to get the paddling you deserve – ”
And down against the other gorgeous curve.

(How sweetly were her smooth and tender flanks
Upraised for him, to be adored with spanks…)

The swift effects of ten such sounding whacks
Against the tight, light fabric of her slacks –
Her bucking buttocks and her kicking heels,
Her cries of “No!” and piercing, outraged squeals –
Sent rays of warming gladness to his heart
(For her, a different warmth, another part),
Confirming that his instinct wasn’t wrong
To give what she’d been asking for so long.

So back to work. He dextrously undid
Her sleek, chic pants, and down her thighs they slid.
The sheer white briefs were clearly all too brief
To lend her well-warmed roundness much relief,
But since again she blurted “Don’t you dare!”
Her pink posterior was quickly bare.

With shrinking fear, and yet with odd elation,
She knew her rear faced one fierce flagellation,
Indignities her person never knew.
Her nightmare, and her dream, was coming true:
Bent over, quite uncovered, tightly held,
She held her breath, she trembled – then she yelled.

His wooden weapon went from cheek to cheek
And each return she greeted with a shriek.
Its form was flat and stiff, hers soft and plump,
And sternly it addressed her blushing rump.
It said hot things about her fits of pique;
It made its case against her naughty cheek.
Too many times her crimes had gone uncaught:
For every crime she earned a smart report.
Too many times she’d flexed a waspish tongue:
For every word her writhing backside stung.
She gasped in anguish at the fires he lit
And fed with well-placed strokes. How would she sit
Again upon such throbbing, tingling flesh?
She cried that if he’d stop she’d start afresh,
But plead and sob and promise all she might
He plied that wicked brush with no respite.
His aim was steady and his will was firm;
Her fate was but to redden, weep and squirm.

For fully half an hour the ceiling rang
With echoes of the sorry song she sang.
For fully half an hour he took great care
Her precious seat was spanked both ripe and rare.

And here our household scene finds happy ending:
When she’s released at last from her down-bending,
One soundly punished girl, one happy chap,
And she’s sat – gingerly – upon his lap,
And one hand’s found, while in his arms she blubs,
Her buttocks’ glowing places, which she rubs,
With kisses warmer than those flaming hills
She shows appreciation of his skills,
The master’s brushwork painting for his wife
A rosy picture of their future life.

– Anon, 21st century

Birched by the court

In a rather fat volume “English Juvenile Courts” by Winifred A. Elkin (pub. 1938) I found a great passage that compares corporal punishment at home or school with court-ordered birchings.

Over the previous pages I’d got the impression that Ms Elkin didn’t like judicial corporal punishment very much, but with these few paragraphs she mad me wonder.

The conditions under which birching is administered in the courts are so different that no comparison with the results of birching by parents or in schools has any value.

If a boy is birched by his father, the punishment is carried out by someone for whom he may be presumed to have affection and respect… If he is birched at school, he may accept it as part of the discipline of an institution to which he feels he belongs and to which he recognises his responsibility. If neither his affections nor loyalties are involved, birching may perhaps cow him or make him more careful… It will not in any case effect any real moral improvement.

When it does good, it is not because the pain involved acts as a restraint against future misbehaviour, but rather that the punishment is taken as a sign that he has offended against the code of an organisation or of an individual whose standards he accepts and admires.

But it is a different matter when a boy is birched by a police officer by order of a court. Here it is certain neither his affections nor loyalties are involved… At the best, he will take it as an entirely impersonal business. If it restrains him in the future, it can only be because he fears its repetition.

Hang on, I thought as I read this. What she’s saying is, the only effective judicial birching is a really hard one, so flog ’em till they scream. She can’t be saying that. She’s a nice lady, Ms Elkin, right? Well…

It is actually not unknown to find boys who express a preference for a birching rather than other methods. Clarke Hall said that he had known on several occasions boys who asked to be birched rather than to be sent away, but that he had never known the converse…

If the pain of it is reduced to vanishing point, it is hard to see what good can be expected of it from a punitive standpoint.

Yep, flog ’em till they scream.

Actually, what the writer is doing is arguing ad absurdum: a moderate birching is no good, but no decent person would want to give a youngster a really hard birching, therefore we may as well get rid of judicial CP altogether.

However, I can just hear Abel pontificating along the lines of that last quoted paragraph. “If the punishment doesn’t hurt, young lady, it isn’t doing any good from the punitive standpoint.”