In this unflinching memoir, Joe Gibson recounts the affair he had as a schoolboy with his 35-year-old teacher, whom he calls Miss P. The year is 1991 and 17-year-old Gibson, who has chosen to protect his identity by using a pseudonym, has been awarded a bursary to an elite private school to study for his A-levels. Since the school is 150 miles away, his parents arrange for him to stay with friends who allow him use of their spare room, but otherwise leave him to his own devices.
Gibson initially settles in well, falling in with a clique of boys whose conversations are largely confined to rating the attractiveness of the girls in their year and pondering whether they will go to Oxford or Cambridge. But then he learns that his parents are divorcing, leaving him feeling unmoored. When he bumps into Miss P in a pub near the school, he dissolves into tears and tells her about the problems at home. “I want to hug her, to bury my head in her neck, to be wrapped in her voluminous hair,” he says, ominously.
