Curbing Masturbation and Domestic Discipline – A Scanned Letter from Blushes C.P Special Edition

The title says most of it - and I am too pushed for time to say very much more. A very inspiring and stimulating little treatise I think you will agree - it certainly was responsible for inspiring the development of some of my ideas, anyway. It is amazing how often the most interesting of these letters seem to either start or end close into the spine of the magazine - even the short ones. In this case, being a 'C.P Special' - and thus a compilation - the book is rather thick and because of that it proved difficult to get clear reproduction of the scanned print close in to the spine. I have done the best I can and hope you can make it all out in a satisfactory manner. If not, let me know and perhaps some time after Christmas, when I have a little more time, I will transcribe the letter as text. The main body is on the left and the continuation from the next page is on the right (amazing!). Just click on each to enlarge enough (I hope) to make readable.

.....

The picture, above left, is just a little something that I scanned from a fairly recent newspaper cutting and just seemed apt, especially as the mini-kilt seemed so popular in the reader's letters pages of such mags as Blushes, Janus et al in those far-off days. The shot actually originates from a scene in The Benny Hill Show (UK TV); popular here in the 1970s.

.....

I am hoping to get at least a tiny bit done to add to the new book before having to rush out to pick up the kids from school and then head off - via no less than three buses - to Brent Cross, North West London (the closest half-way decent Mall) for a spot of hurried Christmas shopping...Oh, what joy!

Another inspiration, influence and a governess

Another influence on my work was a letter, apparently published in response to a previous edition's questionnaire or some such thing, that I came across in a very old magazine that I had found amongst a batch of dogeared old magazines and stuff that I'd bought at a boot-fair. That was way back in the 1980s and all I have now is an old photo copy that I've scanned for the blog. I have absolutely no recollection of the title of the magazine it originally came from, other than that it was from a letters page (too many beers over the years I guess).

The pic on the left comes from a 980s catalogue issued by Garoulds of London, And now-defunct uniform manufacturer that used to have a shop the Edgeware Road, London W1.

Their range of styles, that I still vividly recall from the 1960s and 70s, have played a great part in influencing the design of the more institutional uniforms that I envisage (and hopefully manage to depict) in my writings. The 1960s styles, particularly those of the early 1960s, tended to incorporate long sleeves with buttoned cuffs, more defined belted waists and somewhat flared skirts. The front-buttoned belt seemed a feature of many of their styles throughout the period. Despite the above being a 1980s version I can still somehow imagine it worn by the writer of the letter above. It's not perfect, but it provides a fair illustration nonetheless. I leave it to the reader to make the necessary mental adjustments to envisage an early 1960s version, perhaps in a hard wearing navy blue nylon fabric, the woman casually toying with a heavy leather strap, her charge tightly bent over a stall or across the arm of a sofa nearby.