Me and my American husband husband lived in London in 1972. He had spanked me once for being careless and risking my life. He was not a spanker and I was not a spankee but the experience was overwhelming. Strolling through London we saw a JANUS magazine, and discovered we were not the only ones liking this. I hid around the corner, while my husband bought the magazine. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed spanking all through our 32 years of marriage. I am a widow now and still enjoy going across a man’s knee. Never too old for a good spanking across the knee on your bare bottom!”

A young headmistress punishes a student and her boyfriend; the first film said to be ‘specially made for Janus’. Linda (Evelyn Simmonds) incurs punishment by neglecting her schoolwork and trying on her aunt’s lingerie. In the absence of the headmistress, Mr Maitland, a school governor, takes Debbie and Fiona in hand.

Alan Bell, the owner and editor of Roue was approached to become editor of Janus and, for a short period (Janus 8-10), he was editing both magazines. As part of the new team Alan brought Peter French and Vic Barnes with him and it was Peter and Vic who took over full running of the magazine as editor and photo editor respectively from issue 11 (below). Initially they produced the magazine from offices above the shop before moving to new premises in Golden Square. The next few years were something of a golden age for Janus. Featuring artwork by Paula Meadows and fiction by writers such as Richard Manton and R T Mason the magazine set the standard for its competitors producing innovative photo stories of a consistently high quality even when censorship restrictions were at their peak. The magazine produced a series of popular videos with high production values during the early 1980’s. The St Winifred’s Trilogy (below), The Disciplinarian and the Moral Welfare videos were among the best films available on the market at the time. They sadly disappeared from the shop following the introduction of the Video Recordings Act 1984. and I opted for the A framed trestle, which was padded and turned out to surprisingly comfortable. As I stretched down, the organiser asked if I minded having my g-string removed – which he did before I had answered, although I had lifted my hips slightly to make it easy for him to slide them down. I think about this moment a lot – here was I bent over with my bare bottom on display to twenty men including my ex-boss plus several waiters about to receive a strapping followed by a caning. I used to fantasise about being a stripper, and perhaps I was living out something else at this point. In the ‘special interest box’ discreetly placed in a safe corner are a few various ones, in the middle are half a dozen Janus, and Kane magazines. At this time the magazine was published from offices at 164 North Gower Street, London and the main Janus bookshop was at 10 Irving Street, London (below).

Welcome to Janus– home of the longest running spanking magazine in the world and featuring the largest collection of vintage spanking magazine scans from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Mummy noticed, and the other W.I.Women noticed. Not only noticed, but mentioned it, in a subtle way. “Your Karen is making a fine young lady, she’ll certainly turns some heads one day!” The headmaster (Ken Parry) is furious to discover two girls in lesbian embraces; featured in Janus Vol.8 No.12; later sold with The Riding Lesson and The Gym Lesson on a single video cassette. In truth the idea appealed but I was also very nervous. I assumed that if I agreed it would involve baring my bottom and that it would be the organiser who would actually administer the caning. A few minutes later he came over to ask if I was ‘willing’, and confirmed my suspicion that the beer mug was a collection for me to receive a caning. I felt somewhat as if the decision had been taken away from me, but I didn’t want to appear to be a spoil-sport. I told him I’d do it, provided I only received six strokes of the cane. He asked me if I wanted a strapping first to warm me up, to which I said ‘why not’.The film must have been made a few years earlier, as a still appears in London Life Magazine vol.1 no.7 (1977) p24. Her mind is in turmoil. She knows what it means. She thinks of that poor girl, all those years ago. She should never have done it to her, she has felt guilty for years. I get my manhood in my hand, and stroke as I listen. I hear the rustle of paper, the removal of some clothing, and little words….and then… This is a story version of one of the true real life spankings as told to me by a delightful lady who went to a Girls Grammer School and was kept in line at home by a slipper wielding mother, who used it on her daughters bare bottom… Often! We enter the cafe, “ooops, I forgot to mention to the waitresses that I would not need my red spanking cushion today.”

A traffic warden (Linzi Drew) does an impromptu audition as a spanking model; made on film with dubbed sound, but released on video; featured in New Janus No.6. I went to the bar to buy my ex-boss a drink, and when I returned he was in conversation with the organiser. Clearly my ex-boss had told the organiser that I was no stranger to the cane and I was asked if I had any interest in putting on a ‘finale’. Earlier I had wondered what it might feel like to be caned in front of so many people, but had not actually considered that it might actually happen. I told them I’d think about it. In conversation with my ex-boss, he said that it might be fun and if I agreed I could clearly dictate what I would receive. I told him there was no way I would be able to take the number of strokes that these girls were taking, and he replied that he thought the organiser was simply talking about ‘six of the best’. In Karen’s case Mummy simply said, “I have signed it, and returned it already. Let me say this just once Karen. If you are ever punished at school, you will be punished again at home, understood?” there were to be no niceties. I thought about how school pupils felt knowing that they had an appointment with the Headmaster at some point in the future knowing they were going to be caned. Miss Christopher punishes Julie and Lisa for defacing the seat of her shorts; featured in Janus Vol.8 No.7.I hear nervous breathing. I have the hook baited, I know it is dangling tantalisingly in her mind. People say I have a nice, soothing, calm voice. She sends me a couple of photos of her, peering between her legs. I masturbate to orgasm as I listen to her doing the same. Sophie, the waitress, smiles and offers Rowena a cushion. “Thank you.” I say…” But no cushion is needed today.”

As access to spanking related material became increasingly more easily available online the Janus publication schedule slowed down with only 4 to 6 new issues being produced each year. When Janus 167 was published in 2007 there was no indication at the time that this was to be the final issue. Despite an excellent re-launch in Janus 161 the magazine had reached the end of its natural life. The Internet had finally seen off the longest running spanking magazine in the world. Karen remembers the day her adventure at Grammer School began. It was the day she received the letter telling her that she had passed the 11+ exam with flying colours. In March 1994 Janus saw it’s first major change of staff for well over a decade. Following the publication of its second 100th issue a new editor, St John North, took the helm. St John (who was better known to Janus readers as ‘Christian’, the husband of Sophie Fennington) would edit the magazine for the remainder of it’s run.The venue was a restaurant, which had a separate room upstairs. Right from the start it was clear that this all about ‘fun’ and the organiser Almost a minute passed, but it felt longer. Karen looked at her beautiful Mummy, the rounded body looked so cosy and even at this moment strangely comforting, her Mummy bear almost. She saw her Mummy looking at her bush, her hips, she could almost read the thoughts in her head…”My my, my little girl is a girl no more.” I spent many years working at a College, lecturing and demonstrating Thermodynamics. Every time, just before the class came in, I was nervous, even after twenty five years I was. It is the same now…I see a car pull up, just one girl in it…it has to be her. I go to the counter, at the front of the Antiques Emporium to greet her. The magazine was printed by Arbrose Press (40 Danbury Street, London) and distributed by Aesop Magazine Distribution to Sweden, Holland, Amsterdam, Denmark, Australia, and, via Parliament News, to the U.S. and Canada. In 1973, the editor and publishers were prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act and acquitted. The covers of the first twenty-six issues ( Mentor Vol. 1, No. 1 to Janus Vol. 3, No. 2) carried erotic drawings, usually by Rex, of young women in more or less fetishistic clothing. The first issue with a colour photograph on the cover was Vol.3 No.1, the 1973 Christmas special; this became standard from Vol. 3, No. 9. For several years, the cover photographs were mainstream glamour shots, usually of bare-bottomed women. The first issue to show an actual spanking on the front was Vol. 8, No. 1 in 1978.