When I heard that the Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge are to send their children, George,
Charlotte and Louis, to Lambrook School in Berkshire, I felt an involuntary and
unwelcome shudder.
From a distance of several
decades, I remember the establishment as a cold place of sadistic beatings,
bullying, fear, cruelty and child sexual abuse.
I was just seven years old
when my mother suddenly announced one Christmas that I was to be sent
away to school.
A week or two later, she drove
me up the long tree-lined drive to the imposing front door of Lambrook. I
remember it as if it were yesterday. I was absolutely terrified.
In the car park, our battered
Austin 10 was surrounded by Bentleys, Jaguars and Rolls-Royces. Then, as now,
Lambrook was regarded as one of the top prep schools and a feeder for Eton,
Harrow and Winchester.
My schoolmates were to be the
sons of aristocrats and captains of industry, and I immediately felt
intimidated as I knew we weren’t well off. My father worked for the Vestey
family in Brazil, and it was the meat company, not family wealth, that paid my
school fees.
Worse, my parents were
separated, which back in the 1950s carried an enormous stigma. My mother was an
actress and writer who, as Hazel Adair, later helped to create Crossroads and a
host of other TV dramas.
