Here is one way to do it
_,_,rest = s.partition(start)
result,_,_ = rest.partition(end)
print result
Another way using regexp
import re
print re.findall(re.escape(start)+"(.*)"+re.escape(end),s)[0]
or
print re.search(re.escape(start)+"(.*)"+re.escape(end),s).group(1)