Novelists as Schoolmasters

Brunei .. and that was an odd story.

Might have been heat stroke, might have been slipped a mickey .. but he was, reportedly, diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour or some such and advised to leave the country by the best physician in the country who worked directly for the Sultan.

The odd part was this being shortly after Devil of a State was published .. nominally about a fictious African country, transparently dishing dirt on society and rule in Brunei.

Clockwork Orange gets all the recognition but I still applaud his opening sentence in Earthly Powers, his parodic mockumentary of a (specific?) stereotyped British author.

Not at all odd if you have taught in such private schools. It's a matter of seeing things going on that in principle the teacher is supposed to put a stop to but in practice you ignore, hoping that no one in future looking for a scapegoat points a finger at you for ignoring the thing.