From Morality to Mayhem

Reviews / Votes

"Julian Lovelock explores the oeuvre of archetypal school stories - exquisitions on bravery, honour, loyalty and friendship played out against the mise-en-scene of housematches, cross-country runs, midnight feasts, platitudinous assemblies, and school trips - often with alarming consequences. Halcyon days for some, emotionally crippling for others - Lovelock's book is a good place to start if you want to understand the British obsession with public schools and class."
Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, Headmaster of Stowe

"Julian Lovelock's fine new study of the English school story fills a distinct gap in the critical history of children's literature. Lovelock's range impresses as much as his critical precision: this detailed survey covers about a century and a half of the stories many Anglophone readers will have grown up with, but which have not always received the scholarly or imaginative interpretation they deserve. It's great to see recent authors like Andy Mulligan included in the roll call, along with more usual suspects from Thomas Hughes to Angela Brazil. Julian Lovelock tackles this neglected canon with aplomb, acumen, and evident enjoyment."
Dr John Drew, Professor of English Literature, University of Buckingham

"Lovelock's coverage is near-comprehensive ... Readers of From Morality to Mayhem will enjoy rediscovering, in Lovelock's humanely critical company, the books they read in their youth"
-David warnes, Conference and Common Room, pp.55-7