There were some fine teachers there in particular an English teacher who was very inspiring and navigated us through the classics I got

There were some fine teachers there, in particular an English teacher who was very inspiring and navigated us through the classics I got English and French A-levels. You’d see the silhouette in the doorway: “Evans, go into the changing-room!” The languid seniors would be leaning against the wall. You got a lecture and a good thrashing on your pyjama-ed bottom Also, there was “dowling”, or fagging You were a “dowl”, or slave, for your first two years You had to warm the toilet seat for your seniors Surprising as it may seem, I really enjoyed my time there. The gates were firmly locked against the Sixties, but the good parts of Sixties liberalism would finally seep under them.

At the beginning, though, the monitors were allowed to beat us. The terror of those footsteps after lights-out in the dormitory… You got beaten for trivial reasons, such as if your shoes weren’t clean enough Some of the teachers really enjoyed beating us. I often wondered if the lovely headmaster, John Webber, knew about the dark things being done at the school. There were some good teachers, in particular a French teacher called David Coop; again, he would read stories, especially Maupassant short stories, which I later read to my own children when they were young.Oakley was the prep school to Bromsgrove School, where I went when I passed the common entrance exam at 13 While I was there, Bromsgrove became a nicer place. The second half of double-English on Friday mornings consisted of going to her book-lined study; she would read The Jungle Book, The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Wind in the Willows.

I was transfixed.At the age of eight, I went to boarding school. This was absurd: Oakley, a crumbling, red-brick Victorian mansion, was only two miles away from home It was a pretty brutal place. When Robert Redford was filming The Horse Whisperer, he invited me to go riding at Sundance, his ranch, but I was appalled: on a horse, I look like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
I gave the hero of The Horse Whisperer the name of Tom Booker, and the headmistress of Whitford Hall, a wonderful private school near Bromsgrove, was Miss Booker, a very gentle, kind and clever person (but strong: you didn’t want to upset her). And the audience will be real punters rather than Tory members.”The school boasts another trump card: both Cameron and Davis will arrive by chopper, and Repton has a helipad. “It’s for our Arab students,” claimed one parent.* There’s been serious “handbags” between Paul Nicholls and a waiter at Le Relais de Venise l’entrec? a new London outpost of the famous Parisian restaurant.Last week, the modish actor turned up for dinner at the restaurant, which is notable for only selling two dishes: walnut salad starter and steak frites. Because they do not take bookings, he was forced to queue for half an hour for a table.”Nicholls sat down and we gave him a salad.

But then, about half an hour later, the kitchen completely ran out of steak,” I’m told.The waiter rather sheepishly informed Nicholls that he couldn’t eat any dinner except the walnut salad starter he’d already been served. He quite understandably hit the roof.” We did give the salad to him on the house, but he was still fuming,” adds my source. I was tired of constantly hearing that I got cancelled from this job or that, or hearing that this photographer was called or that magazine was called and [told] not to use me,” she says.Campbell is said to giggle nervously, before attempting to blame everything on Her Majesty’s press.* Jeremy Clarkson faces yet another brickbat from the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Tom Brake.Not content with submitting an Early Day Motion against the Top Gear presenter Brake is attempting to haul him before the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.Yesterday, he circulated a dossier on Clarkson’s “anti-green” track record to journalists, quoting his comment: “What’s wrong with global warming? We might lose Holland but there are other places to go on holiday.”Elsewhere, it highlights the chubby controversialist’s belief that environmentalists should “take up something useful, like tearing their tongues out”, and his threat to “run down” cyclists who cross his path.Brake should watch his step. His other novels are The Smoke Jumper, The Loop and, just out, The Divide.