Try free for 30 days
-
A Very Private School
- Narrated by: Charles Spencer
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $24.31
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
In Bad Faith
- Inside a Secret Ultra-Orthodox Sect and the Brutal Betrayal It Tried to Hide
- By: Dassi Erlich
- Narrated by: Dassi Erlich
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young girl growing up in a strict ultra-Orthodox family, Dassi's life was preordained - marry young, live a devout life and raise children within the Adass community's religious rules. This righteous path would keep her safe from the immodest, secular world just a few blocks away in suburban Melbourne. But the Adass community was not safe for Dassi. She was fifteen when her revered school principal, Malka Leifer, started to single her out. Dassi's cloistered and harsh upbringing meant she didn't have the words for what was happening to her, but she knew it was very, very wrong.
-
-
Honest, heartbreaking and inspiring
- By Anonymous User on 29-04-2024
-
My Mother and I
- By: Ingrid Seward
- Narrated by: Julie Teal, Ingrid Seward
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of how King Charles was shaped and moulded by his heritage. His mother was the woman he always loved but could never be close to. As Queen she held the Pandora’s box of the crown and all he could do was wait and learn. In his mother’s old age, he finally received the affection and respect from her he had craved for so long. This book documents his life through many personal anecdotes from his family and his friends from the moment the guns saluted his birth until St. Edwards Crown was placed on his head and he was officially declared as the King at his Coronation.
-
War of the Windsors
- The Inside Story of Charles, Andrew and the Rivalry That Has Defined the Royal Family
- By: Nigel Cawthorne
- Narrated by: Samuel Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin. War of the Windsors tells, for the first time, the complete story of Charles and Andrew from their diverging childhoods to their current struggles.
-
Meghan and Harry
- The Real Story
- By: Lady Colin Campbell
- Narrated by: Lucinda Bell Howard
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A balanced account of game changes, conflicts and ambitions. The fall from popular grace of the previously adulated brother of the heir to the British throne as a consequence of his marriage to a beautiful and dynamic Hollywood starlet of colour makes for fascinating listening in best-selling royal author Lady Colin Campbell's balanced account. Lady Colin knows her royal history and psychology, and as the first seven years of her adult life were spent in the USA, she has a foot in both the American and British camps.
-
-
Author plain mean
- By Anonymous User on 30-12-2020
-
The Psychology of Secrets
- My Adventures with Murderers, Cults and Influencers
- By: Andrew Gold
- Narrated by: Andrew Gold
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all keep secrets. 97 per cent of us are hiding a secret right now, and on average we each hold thirteen at any one time. They are the stuff of gossip, of novels and of classic dramas; secrets form a major part of our hidden inner lives. Podcaster Andrew Gold knows this better than anyone. A public persona, he found himself the (unwitting) recipient of hundreds of strangers' most private revelations. This set him on a journey to understand this critical part of our societies and lives. Why do we keep secrets? Why are we fascinated by those of others? What happens to our mind when we confess?
-
-
Interesting and insightful
- By Jacqui on 26-04-2024
-
The Final Curtsey
- A Royal Memoir by the Queen's Cousin
- By: Margaret Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she "lodged" at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5.
-
-
Good for aged 70+
- By Ewa Doherty on 22-09-2022
-
In Bad Faith
- Inside a Secret Ultra-Orthodox Sect and the Brutal Betrayal It Tried to Hide
- By: Dassi Erlich
- Narrated by: Dassi Erlich
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young girl growing up in a strict ultra-Orthodox family, Dassi's life was preordained - marry young, live a devout life and raise children within the Adass community's religious rules. This righteous path would keep her safe from the immodest, secular world just a few blocks away in suburban Melbourne. But the Adass community was not safe for Dassi. She was fifteen when her revered school principal, Malka Leifer, started to single her out. Dassi's cloistered and harsh upbringing meant she didn't have the words for what was happening to her, but she knew it was very, very wrong.
-
-
Honest, heartbreaking and inspiring
- By Anonymous User on 29-04-2024
-
My Mother and I
- By: Ingrid Seward
- Narrated by: Julie Teal, Ingrid Seward
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of how King Charles was shaped and moulded by his heritage. His mother was the woman he always loved but could never be close to. As Queen she held the Pandora’s box of the crown and all he could do was wait and learn. In his mother’s old age, he finally received the affection and respect from her he had craved for so long. This book documents his life through many personal anecdotes from his family and his friends from the moment the guns saluted his birth until St. Edwards Crown was placed on his head and he was officially declared as the King at his Coronation.
-
War of the Windsors
- The Inside Story of Charles, Andrew and the Rivalry That Has Defined the Royal Family
- By: Nigel Cawthorne
- Narrated by: Samuel Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin. War of the Windsors tells, for the first time, the complete story of Charles and Andrew from their diverging childhoods to their current struggles.
-
Meghan and Harry
- The Real Story
- By: Lady Colin Campbell
- Narrated by: Lucinda Bell Howard
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A balanced account of game changes, conflicts and ambitions. The fall from popular grace of the previously adulated brother of the heir to the British throne as a consequence of his marriage to a beautiful and dynamic Hollywood starlet of colour makes for fascinating listening in best-selling royal author Lady Colin Campbell's balanced account. Lady Colin knows her royal history and psychology, and as the first seven years of her adult life were spent in the USA, she has a foot in both the American and British camps.
-
-
Author plain mean
- By Anonymous User on 30-12-2020
-
The Psychology of Secrets
- My Adventures with Murderers, Cults and Influencers
- By: Andrew Gold
- Narrated by: Andrew Gold
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all keep secrets. 97 per cent of us are hiding a secret right now, and on average we each hold thirteen at any one time. They are the stuff of gossip, of novels and of classic dramas; secrets form a major part of our hidden inner lives. Podcaster Andrew Gold knows this better than anyone. A public persona, he found himself the (unwitting) recipient of hundreds of strangers' most private revelations. This set him on a journey to understand this critical part of our societies and lives. Why do we keep secrets? Why are we fascinated by those of others? What happens to our mind when we confess?
-
-
Interesting and insightful
- By Jacqui on 26-04-2024
-
The Final Curtsey
- A Royal Memoir by the Queen's Cousin
- By: Margaret Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she "lodged" at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5.
-
-
Good for aged 70+
- By Ewa Doherty on 22-09-2022
-
Three Times a Countess
- The Extraordinary Life and Times of Raine Spencer
- By: Tina Gaudoin
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Debutante of the year. Able politician. Femme fatale. Just some of the many labels attached to the irrepressible, controversial Raine Spencer: Countess, socialite and stepmother to Diana, Princess of Wales. But who was the real Raine? What was hidden behind the immaculately manicured public façade and her overwhelmingly negative tabloid image? From her childhood days as daughter of romantic novelist powerhouse, Barbara Cartland, to Westminster councillor and wife of Earl Spencer, Three Times a Countess recounts Raine's compelling and glamorous life.
-
-
Simply lovely
- By Anonymous User on 11-11-2022
-
Servo
- Tales from the Graveyard Shift
- By: David Goodwin
- Narrated by: Barton Welch
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo. From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on MDMA releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.
-
-
The boredom and lack of writing skill
- By candie t. on 17-04-2024
-
My Days
- Happy and Otherwise
- By: Marion Ross, David Laurell - contributor, Ron Howard - foreword
- Narrated by: Marion Ross, David Laurell, Jim Meskimen, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For eleven seasons, Marion Ross was head of one of America's favorite television households. Now meet the lovable real-life woman behind the Happy Days mom. In this warm and candid memoir, filled with loving recollections from the award-winning Happy Days team - from break-out star Henry Winkler to Cunningham "wild child" Erin Moran - Ross shares what it was like to be a starry-eyed young girl with dreams in poor, rural Minnesota, and the resilience, sacrifices, and determination it took to make them come true.
-
-
My Days
- By michael64 on 23-04-2018
-
Killers of the King
- The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I
- By: Charles Spencer
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
January, 1649. After seven years of fighting in the bloodiest war in Britain’s history, Parliament faced a problem: what to do with a defeated king who refused to surrender? Parliamentarians resolved to do the unthinkable, to disregard the Divine Right of Kings and hold Charles I to account for the suffering and slaughter endured by his people. On a winter’s day outside Whitehall, the king of England was executed. When the king’s son, Charles II, was restored to the throne, he set about enacting a deadly wave of retribution against all those responsible for his father’s death.
-
The Half Brother
- By: Christine Keighery
- Narrated by: Anna Lise Phillips
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah and Stef have always been there for each other. Growing up in a loving family, they're stunned to discover their mother adopted out a child before their parents met. When Alex walks into their lives, the sisters are seduced by his charm, wealth and social status. But as they rush to make up for lost time, it soon becomes apparent their half-brother's agenda is more complicated and sinister than the Fidler sisters could have imagined.
-
-
Intriguing
- By Olivia Fontaine on 06-09-2023
-
Back to Bangka
- Searching for the Truth About a Wartime Massacre
- By: Georgina Banks
- Narrated by: Georgina Banks, Jane Harber
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bangka Strait, Indonesia, 1942. Allied ships are evacuating thousands in flight from Singapore, the island having fallen to Japanese Imperial forces. Facing terrifying assaults by fighter planes, one ship, the Vyner Brooke, is badly bombed and sinks. Its survivors swim or paddle for hours to the nearest land, a beach on Bangka Island, parched, many dreadfully injured One of the survivors is Australian Army nurse Dorothy 'Bud' Elmes, the great-aunt of Georgina Banks. Bud makes it to the island, where she, colleagues and a matron tend to the wounded as a plan is formulated.
-
-
The truths
- By Gordon on 09-02-2024
-
My Mother's Eyes
- By: Shanelle Dawson
- Narrated by: Shanelle Dawson, Alley Pascoe
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she was four years old, Shanelle Dawson's mother, Lynette, disappeared. On 8 January 1982, the woman who had been a loving, constant presence vanished without a trace. Four year old's might not be able to articulate questions or understand a lot, but the ache of absence is very real. Year after year that ache persisted. Shanelle's father, Chris Dawson, claimed that his wife just needed to get away. This is what he told Lyn's parents and siblings. This is what he told his daughters. But Lyn never returned home.
-
-
Very well written
- By Anonymous User on 13-10-2023
-
Crypt
- Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond
- By: Alice Roberts
- Narrated by: Alice Roberts
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her previous two bestsellers, Professor Alice Roberts has powerfully and evocatively revived people of the past through examining their burial rites, bringing a fresh perspective on how they lived. In Crypt, Professor Roberts tells the story of modern Britain from 1066 to the present day - by exploring changing methods of honouring the dead.
-
Wishful Drinking
- By: Carrie Fisher
- Narrated by: Carrie Fisher
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabers."
-
-
Hilarious, witty and blisteringly candid
- By Jacquie Jackman on 28-12-2016
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Plea for Cutting For Stone!
- By karenf on 14-05-2023
-
Exploited
- By: Maggie Hartley
- Narrated by: Penny McDonald
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fourteen-year-old Hannah comes to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley after her mum pleads with Social Services to take her into care, unable to cope with her daughter anymore. Previously a good student, a loving daughter and sister, Hannah is now playing truant, drinking and taking drugs. Angry and mistrustful, it seems that nobody can reach this troubled teenager.
-
-
I love the books Maggie writes.
- By Anonymous User on 26-05-2023
-
The Hiltons
- The True Story of an American Dynasty
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hiltons is a sweeping saga of the success-and excess-of an iconic American family. Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton's visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism.
-
-
An amazing and inspiring story - Highly recommended
- By Andrew M on 11-01-2016
Publisher's Summary
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'Shocking and moving' Guardian
'A tour-de-force' Washington Post
At eight years of age, Charles Spencer was sent away to one of England’s most exclusive boarding schools.
In this courageous and beautifully written memoir, Spencer offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of the strange secrets of the school, and the culture of cruelty and abuse he witnessed and experienced in his five years there as a pupil.
Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, the book is his attempt to come to terms with the deep emotional scars inflicted upon him. Spencer reflects on the misery, hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness, the vicious brutality of a boys’ school in the 1970s and the appalling inescapability of it all.
The book cracks the code of the unpoliced regime that ran the place and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding school system. He gives vivid portraits of the teachers and other staff placed in loco parentis, their casual cruelties and toxic obsessions. All these years later, Spencer’s bafflement at their motivations to inflict such cruelty on young children is palpable. As is his fury that, even if somehow he had spoken up, he’d never have been believed.
More from the same
What listeners say about A Very Private School
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 24-03-2024
Extraordinary
Such a frank account of a dreadful boarding school life. It is hard to believe this went on in schools so comparatively recently. Brilliantly written and narrated but a harrowing listen to be honest. Could have cried several times for those poor boys. Well done Charles Spencer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gerri A.
- 04-04-2024
Shocking
Almost brought me to tears. As a parent myself I’ve never understood sending children away to boarding school.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Josephine Staff
- 12-04-2024
Totally honest
A beautifully written honest account of the beastly experiences of boarding school students in the 70’s. Loved listening to it by the author himself Charles Spencer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 20-03-2024
Insightful and tragic
A sad insight into the boarding school culture and its effect on a generation of young boys. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 14-04-2024
Shocking.
What appalls me as much as the warped treatment these children were subjected to, is the collective upper class mind set that enabled it and which the author has exposed so well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deb
- 21-03-2024
Awful childhood abuse no support
Well, written showing in-depth knowledge and a balance for you of all the participants. This will help many who have suffered and others who did not understand. Hopefully will now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 22-03-2024
Shocking and brave , a story of survival
Charles Spencer narrates and has written an extraordinary story of his and others early schooldays. His thoughtfulness is commendable in regards to the experience of others but his own need to tell his story is hopefully going to inspire him to live a happier life. His family should be very proud of him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen Prior
- 01-04-2024
The delicate discussion about the horrors meted out.
I liked the honesty and the concern for his fellow pupils. Sensed and honest recounting working diligently to evade distortion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 21-03-2024
Courage and Honesty
A concisely written account of the authors and others’ experiences of a shockingly cruel institution. Admiration to Charles Spencer for exposing how children are often abused when they lack the ongoing protection of their family.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kate McGuckin
- 26-03-2024
Negative impact of young children attending boarding school
Not sure about narrator’s voice, I thought though that the narrator/author presented a thoughtful story about negative impact of boarding school. A view I share. I think it took immense courage to tell this story and thank the author for doing so.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!