Men's Accounts of Boarding School

Margaret Laughton has worked with boarding school survivors' organizations for 17 years. Her present work as a BSS-Support Director includes the newsletter and annual conference.Allison Paech –Ujejski has researched and worked with boarding school survivors since the early 1990s and has taught in several boarding schools. She is currently a Director of BSS-SupportAndrew Patterson is an Australian author, ethics consultant and former detective investigating child abuse for many years. He was sent away to an English boarding school when he was seven.

Many readers will be shocked by this unique record of pain and shame, while it will also inspire awe for those who were brave enough to share their stories. It is a record of the hitherto concealed legacy of seamless transgenerational harm to families and of a social mindset that still perverts British politics. It will be a privilege for the uninitiated to read and should enlighten therapists beginning to engage with the normalised mental-health problems resulting from how the British educate their elites. Nick Duffell, author of The Making of Them and Wounded LeadersEach of the contributions to this book gives a vivid sense of the lasting distress borne by children who experienced early boarding.These tales offer a nuanced picture of an intergenerational scandal; a portrait of neglect and abuse of children across the world, all in the name of privileged education. The pain of these adult men as they look back and reflect on their child selves is profound. Professor Joy Schaverien, author of :Boarding School Syndrome: The Psychological Trauma of the ‘Privileged’ ChildThese stories vividly portray the deep wounding that the boarding school experience has on children. There are common themes of bewilderment at leaving home and the difficulties of living, without love,in an institution. They describe ways in which boarding school has impacted on their adult lives,the sense they have made of their experiences and about their inability to trust, feel safe with others and love another…even those closest to them. This is a deep wounding to the soul. Darrel Hunneybell, Psychotherapist and leader of Men’s Boarding School Survivors Workshops

• Foreword: Nick Duffell; Introduction; 1. Memories; Introduction, Joy Schaverien; For My Own Good, Mike Timms; Tying it all Together, Crispin Ellison; Raining Pain, Khalid Roy; I was Wonderfully Good and Never Shed a Tear, John Duncan; A Five-year Old’s Rush to Prove Himself a Man, Philip Batchelor ; The Life of a Modern Boarder, Gareth Coleman; Surviving Boarding School, Ardhan Swatridge; Sursum Corda, Anupam Ganguli; 2. Reflections; Introduction; Leaving home, Mike Dickens; Life in the Ha Ha, Robert Arnold; As Secret as a Lady’s Handbag, Gordon Knott; All Self Left Behind, Peter Adams; How Did You Survive?, Simon Darragh; Schooldays, David Bennett; A Former Boarder’s Habits and Feelings, Jonathan Sutton; Antipodean Reflections, Andrew Patterson; 3. Recovery; Introduction; Emotional Courage, Thurstine Basset; Pulling it Together, Jonathan Burr; With Sadness comes Joy, Robert Arnold; The Metamorphosis…and Back, Lech Mintowt-Czyz; Afterword, Darrel Hunnybell