Okay, "Scholarship" is that precious thing, the first novel. Apparently, so one of my friends tell me, I have been talking and writing this for "quite some time". Deep breath....
Scholarship is fiction, the school called "The Rocks", does not exist. Let's get this out of the way first.
However, Scholarship is very much drawn from a series of events that happened in my life when I was at Prep School in England in the 1960s. This is the British sort of prep school, educating boys aged 8-13. In the novel, it is an all boarders single sex establishment. That environment alone is enough to generate lots of material as it is an artificial environment, women and girls are virtually absent, emotions repressed and no escape.
I actually rather enjoyed my prep school, we had a great time, the food was good and I liked most of my teachers. But in this environment, I found out I was gay. My body found out sooner than my brain. I was a bit confused, especially when I fell for a boy (called Sacha in the book) when I was 12. Sacha was six months younger than me but as soon as I saw him, I realised there was something special there.
That is the basis of Scholarship. If you read the end notes, you will see that I tell you that many of the incidents that make up the story are true (even the dialogue is based on my memory of things said almost 40 years ago). Also based on reality are most of the characters, teachers and boys. Names have been changed. The dates I give are also slightly out.
More to follow.
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