This thoughtful and concise book is the fruit of industrious research and bears all the marks of a labour of love. It invites comparison with Peter Parker’s The Old Lie: the Great War and the public-school ethos (1987), but is more sober and detailed. It includes many a fascinating story and bon mot, and a useful statistical appendix. Its authors are a noted biographer and headmaster, and a history teacher. Material is arranged sometimes thematically, sometimes chronologically. It adds to the usefulness of the book that it pays due attention (as Parker does not) to schools outside the British mainland in Ireland, South Africa and Canada, for instance. Catholic schools such as Downside, Ampleforth and Stonyhurst are fully covered. Girls’ schools feature too.Though the authors&r