Auden's public memories of school

Mr J. H. Arkell
Monday 13 February 1995 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: I read with great interest Marianne Macdonald's article on W H Auden, and was most grateful to hear that his notebook is coming up for sale at Phillips in the near future ("Auden: How school taught me about fascism", 7 February). Although he cited the English public school as a fascist state, he did in fact enjoy his time at Gresham's and, on the page you have photographed for your newspaper, you can read the actual words he wrote specifically about Gresham's which he refers to as Holt -the town where Gresham's is located. He says (and I quote): "It says much or perhaps little - for Holt that I was never bullied or molested, was allowed to make friends where I chose, and was, taking all things into consideration, very happy throughout my time there."

Although Auden strongly criticised the principles of a public school, he was actually happy at Gresham's and praised it for being most enlightened among public schools at that time.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN ARKELL

Headmaster

Gresham's School

Holt,

Norfolk

8 February

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in