1st Edition
Men's Accounts of Boarding School Sent Away
Men’s Accounts of Boarding School is a collection of writings by men about their childhood experiences of being sent away to boarding school.
In these narratives, the men discuss their feelings through their years at school and how this has affected them in adulthood. They give individual views of how living away from home, in an institutional setting, has impacted on their lives.
Much has been written about the adverse effects of early separation and broken attachments, and these men illustrate this research in their accounts. This book will be insightful and useful reading for therapists working with the issues of Boarding School Syndrome, as well as former boarders.
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
Biography
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-Support
Andrew 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 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 Leaders
'Each 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.'
Professor Joy Schaverien, author of Boarding School Syndrome: The Psychological Trauma of the ‘Privileged’ Child
'These 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.'
Darrel Hunneybell, Psychotherapist and leader of Men’s Boarding School Survivors Workshops
