A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, firsthand account of a culture of cruelty at the school 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

Michael and Mary Shelley were glamorous Sydney socialites, who became Christian fanatics and kidnappers. Three of their children - Steven, John and Hannah - were secretly placed into foster care with my parents, Lenore and Tom Blaine. The Shelleys were apocalyptically irritated to discover that the children of God had been fostered by working-class Queensland…