Henrietta Heald suggests Eton has a lot to answer for; plus letters from Frank Learner, John Bailey and Colin Jones
I feel sorry for Boris Johnson (North Shropshire: PM in ‘last chance saloon’, 18 December). Coming from a long-standing member of the Labour party, this may sound odd. I should add that I also come from a family that sent boys to Eton – girls were, and still are, spared such a fate – so I have intimate knowledge of the damage that such a “good education” can do. Puzzled readers have only to refer to Richard Beard’s Sad Little Men, as recommended by John Harris (Boris Johnson’s crises boil down to one thing: contempt for the rest of us, 12 December).
That book makes clear how tearing boys away from their families from the age of seven, isolating them from the real world for months on end and subjecting them to a regime of bullying conformity – with the promise that one day they will lead the country – creates men who find emotional connection and empathy a real challenge, to put it mildly.
