Sad Little Men

Private Schools and the Ruin of England

Sad Little Men
Richard Beard
RRP:
NZ$ 30.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 24.00
Paperback
h198 x 129mm - 256pg
7 Jul 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781529114805
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
A passionate, personal book by a prize-winning memoir writer about boarding schools, the damage they do, and power in this country In 1975, as a child, Richard Beard was sent away from his home to sleep in a dormitory. So were David Cameron and Boris Johnson. In those days a private boys' boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations- a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn' t enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was to not let that show. Being separated from the people who love you is traumatic. How did that feel at the time, and what sort of adult does it mould? This is a story about England, and a portrait of a type of boy, trained to lead, who becomes a certain type of man. As clearly as an X-ray, it reveals the make-up of those who seek power - what makes them tick, and why. Sad Little Men addresses debates about privilege head-on; clearly and unforgettably, it shows the problem with putting a succession of men from boarding schools into positions of influence, including 10 Downing Street. Is this who we want in charge, especially at a time of crisis? It is a passionate, tender reckoning - with one individual' s past, but also with a national bad habit.
A sensitive and incisive analysis of the British class system has no right to be as insanely readable and enjoyable as this book manages to be * Tom Holland, author of Dominion * Engaging and readable, powerful and cogent. A vivid portrait of the political elite exposed for the vulnerable men/ children they are * Joy Schaverien, author of Boarding School Syndrome * If you want to understand the aura of entitlement and untouchability shrouding our governing class, look no further than Beard' s witty, unsparingly sharp and deeply moving anatomy of the emotional culture of England' s boarding schools * Josh Cohen * Utterly compelling, top proper stuff. I loved it to bits. The energy of it! I really felt for them (all) by the end * Ian Marchant, Author of A Hero for High Times * A breathtaking personal account of the disastrous British habit of abandoning our most privileged children to institutionalisation. Beard captures all the nuances and subtleties of how the process undermines the boarder and its lasting legacy through into late adulthood. Should be compulsory reading for parents considering what is still thought to be the best choice for their offspring, while it perverts our leadership at home and abroad * Nick Duffell, author of The Making of Them *
Richard Beard is the author of Acts of the Assassins, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and most recently the memoir The Day That Went Missing, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and won the PEN Ackerley Prize. In the United States the book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In the twenty years since his first book, he has published critically acclaimed novels and narrative non-fiction, including Becoming Drusilla, the story of how a friendship between two men was changed by a gender transition. He has served as a judge for Canada' s Giller Prize and for the BBC and Costa Short Story Awards, and is a dour opening batsman for the Authors Cricket Club.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781529114805
Published: 7 Jul 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 200g
Pages: 256

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