Spencer’s analysis of the culture that allowed schools like Maidwell to flourish is fairly basic ... He’s shrewd, however, on the alternating obsequiousness and resentment so often shown by English schoolmasters toward pupils of higher social birth than themselves. As an individual testimony to the abuse that scarred a lifetime and hobbled his marriages, it is a tour de force.
Excruciatingly sad ... Of all the accounts I have read of boarding-school misery, this one gets top marks for its searing frankness, framed in wistfully beautiful prose.
Searing, heartbreaking ... Spencer is acutely observant of the myriad power imbalances at play within this imperial throwback ... His turn of phrase is often delightful.
What’s striking about the book isn’t just its vehemence and the therapeutic purpose it serves in allowing Spencer to 'reclaim' his childhood, but the authenticating detail of his memory ... If you didn’t already think it obscene for children as young as eight to be banished from home for two-thirds of the year, you will after finishing this account.
A moving, if sadly familiar, account ... The author of several history books, he relies on his memories and diaries, with a few accounts of other boys. This poses challenges: could he really remember how bad breakfast was in 1972? And his style is sometimes a little grand.
