Written with a nostalgic feel of yesteryear, this novella charts the rite of passage of 14-year-old Tommy Ford. The year is January 1963, and following heavy snows and a subsequent avalanche, the quiet Lake District village of Penousell is cut off from the outside world for two months. The resourceful villagers rally, and the children are educated in an improvised school, headed by the glamorous and charismatic Dr Constance Blanch. Unable to travel out of the village to attend his grammar school, Tom and other secondary school boys find themselves ensconced in the tiny village school house... not an unpleasant experience for Tom, as he has a crush on the teaching assistant ... the seventeen-year-old Louise, who excites him by threatening to spank him. However, it is Dr Blanche who does most of the spanking, applied firmly to the bare bottoms of Tom and his misbehaving friends. Yes indeed, Dr Blanch has the perfect cure for a naughty boy ... a good smacked bottom on which is left a lasting impression...