A Very Private School

A Memoir

By: Charles Spencer

Narrated by: Charles Spencer

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER | NPR “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024 | PEOPLE’S “BEST CELEBRITY MEMOIRS” 2024 | TOWN & COUNTRY’S “BEST NEW ROYAL BOOKS” 2024 | THE TIMES (LONDON) “10 BEST BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS” 2024 | WINNIPEG FREE PRESS’S “BEST BOOKS” 2024

NOW WITH A NEW AFTERWORD

“A tour de force.” —The Washington Post

In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend boarding school.

A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Charles Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, he reflects on the hopelessness and abandonment he felt at aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness and the appalling inescapability of it all. Exploring the long-lasting impact of his experiences, Spencer presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood. And now, in a new afterword, Spencer reflects on the aftermath of his memoir’s publication, including the outpouring of support and solidarity from fellow abuse survivors.

Straight forward rational analysis of a systematic crime situation in an English boarding school

The nativity of these young boys were so easy to be taken advantage of. They emerged so different in ways the family could not imagine. The secretiveness of the school and the full reign parent gave to those unworthy guardians. At first I didn’t think I could bear the incidents but Lord Spencer has given an adult perspective back to his readers that helped me understand how they remained secretive and the ways to overcome. Although the content is hard to get through- it was a subject well addressed and the strength it took to overcome the feelings that remained.

Brave, compelling, compassionate

This has helped me broaden my perspective about British boarding schools and have more compassion for those who have suffered.

wonderful but sad

my ❤️ went out to charles....I wish he had told someone even Diana.... Those poor children

Vulnerable and well-written.

Charles Spencer wrote a beautiful memoir about a dark period in his childhood at boarding school. Well-written and compelling, I finished it within days, unable to stop listening. His narration was excellent, and I would recommend it!

Stunning

Spencer iss a survivor of childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse. You could be surprised by how much you have in common with him.