[Varley]

St.Wilfrid's (Sutton Avenue) young gentlemen were not aware of young ladies until the last day of their last term when Randall Darwall-Smith (one of our two headmasters) gave us 'the talk'.

I remember a contemporary at that lecture asking if 'it' was pleasant. "Of course it's pleasant you stupid boy! You don't think the good Lord would have made the wonderful making of a new life nasty?" (the place was rather big on superstitions "Fear God and honour the King" the motto, only half of which rubbed off on me.

Nonetheless Annecy rings a bell(e) and I am not pretending that some of us had not discovered the noble art of manually enjoying positive portuguese displacement activities (nothing queer about Jerry Bates who introduced me to the exercise just a kind chap who thought I should know what I was missing).

The only two hotels I remember were the Seaford Head Golf Club and the Esplanade. The latter being where a bomb had blown a lavatory door off when Mrs. Moon (the mother of our other headmaster) was ensconced therein. As prep. schools, stupidly (and to my eternal detriment), did not 'do' science I can only think this was a German one rather classroom made.