Product Description

John Rae was one of the most charismatic
and controversial figures in British education.
His reputation as a great reformer was
forged during his 16 years as headmaster
of Wesminster School, from 1970 to 1986.
Outspoken and humane, he recorded those
turbulent times in handwritten diaries that
seem as fresh and relevant today as they
were back then.
The diaries, which he finished editing
just before he died, aged 75, in 2006, chart
his struggle to keep out illegal drugs and
the impact of family breakdown on pupils.
devious, rank-pulling parents are humorously
dispatched. Dirty tricks by other schools are
exposed - although Rae was not above
wheeler-dealering himself to preserve
Westminster's ranking in the educational
elite.
Rae believed in the right of parents to
educate their children privately, but he was
also a sharp critic of the public school
establishment. His advice to his own children
- "Say what you believe and head up high" -
was his life-long personal code

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97016 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
"It is a mark of John Rae's gifts as an observer of human behaviour, an analyst of power politics, and an urbane prose stylist that this memoir merits the attention of any reader."
--The Daily Telegraph, April 2009

About the Author
John Malcolm Rae was headmaster at Westminster School between 1970-86. He is author of The Custard Boys (1960). He has also written books on education, including the best-selling Letters from School (1987) and five books for children. He died in December 2006.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating piece of social history
Having heard extracts read on Radio this week, I'm looking forward to reading the whole book. A fascinating piece of social history told in 'snapshots' by a forward thinking and interesting man.

interesting but dated
As mentioned below, there are some worthwhile moments of social history here ; his early and mid-1970s are a far away place culturally , however, and a lot has moved on . In response to the reviewer below , and as someone who has had dealings with this school for nearly two decades, I can also say it's about as far away from being "just a hothouse" as it's possible to be for this sort of school. Quirky social history is not a 2010 school guide, in case anyone was looking for one.

Plus ca change
As someone involved in management of an independent school, I recognise a lot of contemporary issues in Rae's book - teachers complaining about the decline of discipline but being unwilling to ask a pupil to tuck in their shirt tails or pick up litter; slightly odd school masters obsessed by steam trains; neurotic classics teachers, convinced that the end of their subject is nigh. I can see why former pupils didn't recognise much but to be fair, you'd have to read the memoir of a pupil to get that angle on events. As a record of senior management in a leading public school, this is pretty hard to beat.