The year is 1979, and Charlotte (Charlie) is in disgrace. Expelled from school for smoking dope, her parents decide to give her a last chance to get the A-levels required for a place at university by sending her to an exclusive boarding school. So Charlie, against her will, is sent to Chesterton Court Sixth Form Boarding School for Girls. Housed in a nineteenth century mansion in the Somerset countryside, the school has an excellent academic reputation, but Charlie soon finds it also has a formidable reputation for the enforcement of strict discipline. Having had no previous experience with spanking or corporal punishment, Charlie's first day at school is memorable; she is whacked with a hairbrush on her bare bottom... and this is just the first of many subsequent punishments. Charlie soon learns the price to be paid for breaking school rules. Discipline is meted out by the strict Headmistress, Miss Swinburne, (whose cane inspires fear amongst her pupils, motivating them to work extra hard), or her Deputy Head, the dour Miss MacLeish. Other staff members do not hesitate to wield the strap or slipper on deserving bare bottoms... such is the regime at Chesterton Court.

However, to Charlie's surprise, she quickly settles in and learns to enjoy boarding school life. Her time at Chesterton is a rite of passage, for she adapts and changes, realizing that even the strictest member of staff has her best interests at heart. Enduring friendships are strengthened by a shared bond - the girls know what it feels like to have a sore bottom. Indeed, bottoms become sorer still with the arrival of a new Housemistress and her Moluccan cane. Yet though some of the punishments are intensely painful, Charlie and one or two others actually come to enjoy the after effects, develop a penchant for a well-thrashed rear end, and wear their stripes with pride.

Written with a nostalgic feel of yesteryear, this 224,000 word novel portrays what life was like in a girls' boarding school in a bygone era. So take a trip down Memory Lane and see for yourself...