And actually I was – I was certainly no rebel, and fully expected to stay out of trouble. My parents had warned me before my departure that the school used the cane, and the warning was accompanied by a severe admonishment to be a good boy. When I was seven years old, I was sent away to board at a private preparatory (prep) school for boys in the south of England – this was in the 1970s and corporal punishment was still available for errant schoolboys.
