After enjoying life at home, Geoffrey was soon to find out that boarding school was no easy journey. At the age of eight he suffered the pain of abandonment from his family after being delivered into the claws of his prep school headmaster. He soon learnt by which methods he could best survive the rules and punishments of both preparatory and public school. Pushed to achieve a scholarship to public school he struggled, both physically and mentally, until even a beating failed to improve his academic chances. Simultaneously he endured the advances of the headmaster before moving on to public school. Trying to divorce himself from home life, he found that breaking rules provided excitement, whilst relying on his self-developed tactics to survive and take him through puberty. Towards the end of his 'stretch' he was obliged to fend off the homosexual advances of other students and in the middle of his last term, he decided to carry out his plan to abscond. Through the gruelling process of life at public school he also learnt who he could trust. His story portrays the consequences of long-term separation from parents, combined with starvation of affection.