Sad little boys: the backlash against UK boarding schools

Cannon Yard at Eton School. (Image: Depositphotos)

Sun, 11 Jun 2023

The moment when his chemistry master pulled a pistol, declared it loaded and waved it in the air was “probably”, says BBC presenter Justin Webb, the worst point of his boarding-school career. Winston Churchill would recall the floggings, done until pupils “bled freely” and screamed loudly. In Such, Such Were the Joys, George Orwell writes of being beaten so violently that his headmaster broke his riding crop and “reduced me to tears”.That British boarding schools are odd places is not news. For seve...

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