The Long Half-Term. It is 1965 and young Robert Unsworth needs to get through the entrance examination for officer’s college in order to join the army. His family have paid for extra tuition during the half-term holidays, to ensure he keeps up the family tradition of serving as an officer. Unfortunately Robert is one of those lazy youths who lacks self discipline and motivation. His family have turned to Tasmin Hunnicutt, Robert’s housemistress and a stickler for firm discipline. His parents have given her carte blanche to achieve the necessary result, and Tasmin knows exactly what Robert needs. It will be startlingly effective, and will provide her with hours of endless enjoyment. There is nothing Tasmin Hunnicutt enjoys more than inflicting physical discipline on the deserving bottoms of recalcitrant boys. He will also have to be encouraged to run the cross-country course by young ladies on horseback. It would appear the cane is going to be very busy this half-term, and Miss Hunnicutt has another painful surprise in store for young Unsworth in the form of a thick rubber punishment strap…
The High Security Wing is a special building set apart from the rest of the prison. Its high steel mesh fences are screened by tall evergreens and are patrolled by armed guards with dogs. The shadowy regime that operates within is rumoured to be above the law. The wing exists to interrogate those prisoners who are a security risk and from whom information must be obtained. The methods used are rumoured to be a mixture of the brutal and the insidiously sophisticated. The whole operation is run by a shadowy figure known only as ‘the governess,’ who apparently not only gets her kicks from interrogation, but is completely without mercy or compassion. The system works well: the security services get their intelligence and the specially selected and recruited female staff get their kicks. The floggings and canings are beyond all endurance and can go on for days in the soundproofed and specially equipped interrogation rooms. The only rule is they mustn’t kill or maim the inmates, but anything else is fair game…