The poisoned bowl : sex, repression and the public school system

Alisdare Hickson

The architecture and organization of today's boarding school is to a great extent the product of over one hundred years of homophobia. One might imagine that the post-Tom Brown evolution of the boarding school was conditioned by the gradual ascendancy of liberal reformers over uncompromising traditionalists. Such a verdict would be highly misleading, for the great reforming headmasters also had an illiberal agenda; the desire to manage the sexuality of adolescent boys and, above all, to prevent any manifestation of homosexuality. Hickson puts forward his thesis at the outset based on evidence drawn from biographies, novels, diaries and school histories, but the greater part of the book is made up of anecdotal accounts and memories obtained by the author from old boys of various backgrounds - including generals, members of parliament, headmasters and leading figures from the clergy, the legal professions and the City.