A very private school
£10.99THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A Times, Spectator and Waterstones Book of the Year
‘Shocking and moving’ Guardian
‘Top marks for its searing frankness, framed in wistfully beautiful prose’ The Times
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A very private school
£25.00In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school.
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Sad Little Men
£9.99In 1975, as a child, Richard Beard was sent away from his home to sleep in a dormitory. So were David Cameron and Boris Johnson. In those days a private boys’ boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations: a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn’t enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was to not let that show. Being separated from the people who love you is traumatic. How did that feel at the time, and what sort of adult does it mould? This is a story about England, and a portrait of a type of boy, trained to lead, who becomes a certain type of man. As clearly as an X-ray, it reveals the make-up of those who seek power – what makes them tick, and why.
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Sad Little Men
£16.99In 1975, as a child, Richard Beard was sent away from his home to sleep in a dormitory. So were David Cameron and Boris Johnson. In those days a private boys’ boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations: a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn’t enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was to not let that show. Being separated from the people who love you is traumatic. How did that feel at the time, and what sort of adult does it mould? This is a story about England, and a portrait of a type of boy, trained to lead, who becomes a certain type of man. As clearly as an X-ray, it reveals the make-up of those who seek power – what makes them tick, and why.
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Enigma Of Kidson Paperback
£16.95The Enigma of Kidson is a moving, thought-provoking, inspiring and hilarious biography of an inspirational and controversial teacher. The updated paperback includes new memories from former pupils and friends along with news of what happened to Kidson’s mother.
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English Public School
£16.99Until his retirement in 2011, Dr Martin Stephen was High Master of St Paul’s School and before that of Manchester Grammar School, two of the most academically successful independent schools in the world, bar none. As such, he is uniquely placed to write a study of that extraordinary phenomenon, the English public school, institutions that are as admired in some quarters as they are despised and vilified in others. His book, however, is no hagiography, and pulls no punches when it comes to the author’s views on the failings of private educational establishments, while also showing what their benefits can be.
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Stiff Upper Lip
£9.99This is the story of generations of parents, Britain’s richest and grandest, who believed that being miserable at school was necessary to make a good and successful citizen. Childish suffering was a price they accepted for the preservation of their class and their entitlement. The children who were moulded by this misery and abuse went on – as they still do – to run Britain’s public institutions and private companies. Confronting the truth of his own schooldays and the crimes he witnessed, Alex Renton has revealed a much bigger story.
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Enigma Of Kidson
£25.00Kidson had everything that central casting requires of a legendary schoolmaster: a passion for his subject, a brilliant didactic style, a silly walk, a smelly spaniel, breath-taking rudeness, eccentric mannerisms and catchphrases, a maverick attitude towards authority, and above all, a deep empathy, loyalty and dedication towards his boys.
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Two Owls At Eton
£9.99When Jonathan Franklin takes two baby tawny owls back to Eton, he has no idea how chaotic the following months will be!