One of the most celebrated novels about life and experiences in a school is that of Tom Brown’s school days. Written by Thomas Hughes, and based on his own experiences and encounters, it charts the school years of one Tom Brown as he attends Rugby School. This is an all boys public school and is set in the 1850s. The book starts with the young Tom roaming the fields and woods of his home in the Vale of the White Horse in Wiltshire. This carefree existence is then destroyed by the news that he has to attend Rugby School. His integration into the school would have been a lot smoother if Rugby had access to the internet in 1857. Tom and his parents could have looked at Websites for schools like those from fse design to make their decision a lot easier.
Tom is taken under the wing of Scud, an older boy whose job it is to integrate new pupils into the school’s way of life. Being a boarder Tom will stay at the school for the term’s duration and only return home in the school holidays. He yearns for home and his life is not made any easier by the presence of the eternal bully and coward Flashman (who would go on to have his own series of books and a film in the twentieth century written by George MacDonald Fraser).
Tom survives the School and with the help of friends defeats Flashman. He soon has his own young charge to take care of and eventually gets to play in the leavers cricket match and set out on his adult life.
