When I left school, I started work in a small office. The staff consisted of the owner and four other ladies. I have changed all names to protect their privacy. I was the sole male worker and very much younger than the others. One of the reasons I got the job was that the owner […]

The first teacher I had a crush on was Mrs Patterson, who took me in third grade. I wasn’t the only one who thought her pretty. My father was the first to meet her, at a party, and commented on how attractive she was. I remember at the time my mom remarking that Mrs Patterson […]

My name is Aahan, I am a 42-year-old Indian-English man. I live in Birmingham now, having spent my childhood split between Mumbai, London and Portsmouth. My parents are both Indian but spent sufficient time abroad to be considered expats, largely due to my father’s business interests. Aahan means, depending on who you ask, ‘dawn’, ‘morning’ […]

I remember very clearly the day when our school punishment straps were collected by the council for destruction. It was 1985, and my local education authority had decided to jump before they were pushed. We had a special assembly discussing corporal punishment and its end in local schools. The headmistress was a dour middle-aged woman […]

I attended an international school on the continent of Africa in the 1990s and 2000s – I can’t give any more specific details on the school to protect my own privacy. The school had students from over 40 countries while I attended, primarily African nations though also students from the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, […]

The last time I received corporal punishment, I was 15. I made the foolish decision to smoke at school – literally behind the bike sheds, to be fully stereotypical. I was caught and summoned to the headmaster’s office during the next lesson. The headmaster was very straightforward about it. He told me to lower my […]

When I was in my early teens, one day I found myself in my parents’ bedroom, idly rooting around in their dressing table, not looking for anything in particular. What I found was a well-thumbed paperback book entitled Those Who Love. It was basically a ‘how to’ manual for those adults who needed extra assistance in the […]