Food at Boarding School | Freddie Mercury "The World's Worst" Food | Piers Cross 

What was food like at boarding school?

And how did that impact us as adults?

Today I draw upon the biography of Freddie Mercury who went to boarding school in India from 8 through to 16.

From Leslie-Ann Jones' biography of Freddie, Love of My Life, she shares some of his stories from his boarding school time.

She shares the story of one of Freddie's girlfriends in the girls' section of Freddie's school: “Oh my goodness, the food at my school was God-awful. And at St Peter's (Freddie's school) it was even worse. The 'world's worst', Bucky (Freddie's nickname at school) used to say. We had no choice but to eat it, we would have starved otherwise. There was nothing else.” 

I also talk about David Cameron who shares in his autobiography, “The food was spartan. I lost a stone in weight.”

I share stories from Eddie Izzard and how he struggled with food at boarding school.

And I also share some of my diary entries from my time at boarding school and what I thought of the food.

What about you? What was your food like at boarding school?

#food #freddiemercury #boardingschool #neglect

Take care,

Piers

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

In this video I reference an article from the Times by Marina and Ben Fogle: https://archive.ph/ximP5 

What if you child really wants to go to boarding school?

What do you need to know as a parent?

#boardingschool #boardingschoolsyndrome 

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Why does the British establishment seem so addicted to cover up? 

In 2024 alone we have seen the Post Office, Mohammed al Fayed, NHS and the blood scandal, Justin Welby and the Church involved in cover-ups. 

Why do we cover up so much in the UK? 

Today I explore some of the historical cover ups in British history from the Boer War to the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya and the British cover up in India during partition. 

I also talk about the psychology of why we cover up. 

And I link it to power and money. 

I draw upon the work of Caroline Elkins and the Legacy of Violence, Prof Joy Schaverien and Boarding School Syndrome, CG Jung and Oliver Bullough's Butler to The World. 

Take care, Piers 

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Liz Entin is an entrepreneur living in NYC and LA. She originally began her career in fashion in both New York and London and now is the founder of Why Get Wasted, a company that helps events, businesses, fashion shows, conferences, and any gathering eliminate waste and be climate friendly. (www.whygetwasted.com)

She is also author and podcast host of WTF Just Happened?! which, inspired by a loss, examines scientific evidence of spirituality and an afterlife from a non-woo perspective. (www.wtfjusthappened.net)

Liz grew up in NYC, where she was sent to the “top” NYC private (the equivalent of what is called public in the UK) schools, from kindergarten through high school (5 - 18 years old). She always thought of her time there as brutal and knew she was unhappy, but believed the schools were something to get through, in exchange for the huge payoff at the end. Recently, as podcasts on trauma and cults have become popular,  discovering Charles Spencer's book, and this podcast, she has realized how traumatic they were and understood the lifelong damage they caused that she is now working to overcome. She has also come to realize how the NYC private schools idealize and base themselves on the British boarding schools.. She is in the middle of writing a book on her time in these schools titled The Marshmallow Castle - The false promises of the best schools. (www.marshmallowcastle.com / www.schooltrauma.com. Instagram: @the_marshmallow_castle)

10 Questions / Talking Points 

1 - Specifics I related to from reading Charles Spencer's book.

2 - These schools are like cults.

3 - Politicians and leaders attend these schools, are damaged, as well as unexposed to the needs of the average person and then bring this lack of empathy and trauma to the country

4 - Direct imitation of British accents (unintentionally) and discussing how we are getting as good an education as anyone who attends Eton.

5 - Combination of very strict rules, that are meaningless, and complete lawlessness when it comes to cruelty , safety, bullying. Shaming for breaking rules.

6 - Insulation from the real world, learning nothing that is useful in the real world, and insulation from other social classes.

7 - As a girl, femininity was looked down upon 

8 - Gaslighting. Constantly being told how lucky you are to attend. A gaslighting of you and your parents from the school and society.

9 - Constantly feeling as if you have to be accomplishing something. Being taught to always strive and not to listen to your needs or body. You are doing something wrong if you are not achieving at every second.  

10 - The good of the school and image of the school comes above all else. Treated as a “class traitor” for saying something negative. 

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

What happened with the church last week? 

Why did the Archbishop of Canterbury not disclose what happened with the sexual abuse? 

Today I wanted to offer a hypothesis through the lens of boarding school syndrome and trauma work. 

What possible reasons did Justin Welby cover up the abuse? 

Today I offer 5 possible reasons that Justin Welby covered up the abuse by John Smyth at the Iwerne Trust. 

And here is my first video from last week: https://youtu.be/apVMm3FG0hs 

To sign up to become an Ambassador of the documentary, Boarding on Insanity: https://www.piers-cross.com/boarding-school-film 

Justin Welby was a “dormitory officer” for the Iwerne Trust: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/justin-welby-church-scrutiny-sadistic-christian-camp?bcmt=1 

Did Justin Welby already know about John Smythe in the 1980s? https://news.sky.com/story/why-has-archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-resigned-and-what-happens-next-13253198 

Take care, Piers 

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Today I wanted to give an update to our documentary, Boarding on Insanity.

With the resignation of Justin Welby, who is the head of the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury, this is so relevant. 

Justin Welby, who boarded at St Peter's School at 8 years old and then to Eton as a boy and also spent time with the Iwerne Trust where John Smyth was abusing children when he was younger.

What is the impact of having leaders who have been to boarding school in charge of big institutions and government?

Will they cover up and hide what is happening?

To sign up to become an Ambassador of the documentary, Boarding on Insanity: https://www.piers-cross.com/boarding-school-film

Justin Welby was a “dormitory officer” for the Iwerne Trust: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/justin-welby-church-scrutiny-sadistic-christian-camp?bcmt=1

Did Justin Welby already know about John Smythe in the 1980s? https://news.sky.com/story/why-has-archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-resigned-and-what-happens-next-13253198

Take care,

Piers

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

AEM # 115 Giles Moffat Boarding School Survivors Taking Their Schools To Court

How do you take your school to court? How do you get a prosecution for sexual and physical abuse when no one else has listened?

A fascinating conversation today with Giles Moffat about how a group of child abuse survivors took their schools to court.

Giles talks about how he connected with Nicky Campbell, the BBC DJ, who attended the same school as him.

Gradually they built a large network of survivors who managed to get not only the police but also the schools and courts to listen.

A very powerful and inspiring conversation.

---

Giles became a boarder at the Edinburgh Academy in 1980, where he was abused like many others.

In 2022 Giles formed the EA Survivors group with Nicky Campbell.  

Today he shares his insights into effective campaigning and the power of survivor groups.

Questions for Giles:

1. I would love for you to share some of your journey. How did you get into the work you are now doing?
2. What were your boarding school experiences like?
3. How did boarding school impact you as an adult?
4. - naming perpetrators and the legalities around that (basically, go for it. We named several people in the media because of their age and have yet to receive a single legal letter in 2 years)
5. Understanding UK defamation law (I have a qualification in this)
6. Influencing prosecution (we lobbied the police and crown office and got 6 arrests in December 23)
7. The experience of giving evidence in court situations 
8. The therapeutic and empowering benefits of speaking up
9. What motivates survivors when they campaign
10. How to engage with the authorities and get the best out of them. 
11. Working with the media to achieve your aims.
12. Planning and strategy for survivor groups. 
13. Historical cover-ups. 
14. You have worked in positions of leadership. How did your boarding school education impact the way you lead?
15. Boarding school leaders: Could you please speak to those leaders who have been to boarding school. David Cameron, Boris Johnson. What do you feel about their leadership?
16. What is the work that you are doing now?

#childabuse #childhoodtrauma #nickycampbell #edinburghacademy 

To connect with the survivors group: https://easurvivors.info/

For Seen and Heard: https://seenheard.org.uk/

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Today I wanted to continue the conversation about cults which Wyndham Wallace talked about in my last podcast: https://youtu.be/NYTA8dm6X6g

HereI wanted share some of the literature on cults by some of the world's leading experts on them.

What is a cult?

And what are the main characteristics of a cult?

And finally how much like a cult is a boarding school?

6 Characteristics of a Cult: https://andynaselli.com/sociological-characteristics-of-cults

What Is A Cult? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-mind/202106/understanding-cults-the-basics

Book on Cults:: https://a.co/d/7kXgyFe

#cults #boardingschool #cult #boardingschoolsyndrome 

Take care,

Piers

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Wyndham Wallace is a Berlin-based writer whose critically acclaimed first book, Lee, Myself & I – about his friendship with Lee Hazlewood, the man behind These Boots Are Made For Walking – was published in 2015. 

He began his career as a music publicist in the mid 1990s, before running City Slang Records’ UK office for eight years, but now works as a music critic for, among others, Uncut and Classic Pop. He also worked as music consultant on Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria, for which composer Nils Frahm won a German Film Award, and can be seen fronting Almost Fashionable: A Film About Travis, which won the Edinburgh Film Festival Audience Award. 

In 2024, he helped lead a number of victims of child sexual abuse over three decades to a public settlement with Horris Hill prep school, and he continues to campaign for justice for all those abused in private education, past and present.

Questions for Wyndham:

1. I would love for you to share some of your journey. How did you get into the work you are now doing?
2. Your own experience at Horris Hill, and how sexual abuse was the only angle that the law would accept to bring a case even though other equally appalling things took place there, leaving other victims without satisfaction
3. The broader issues of a culture that has outlived its usefulness, if it was ever useful, and its wider effects on society
4. Whether, for all their talk of safeguarding etc, schools today have genuinely learned anything from the last decade or two of abuse exposure. With new cases emerging it would appear not much has changed at all.
5. The absurdity of separating a child from its parents at a young age when it’s clearly seen abroad as seriously detrimental, even as a punishment, to a child
6. The need for mandatory reporting and how Duty Of Candour could have helped me (and other Horris Hill victims) put this largely behind us as early as 1985.
7. Your belief that what we are actually dealing with here is a cult, pure and simple. Most of the signs are there, and it takes victims years to deprogram. I believe it’s also helpful to think this way in terms of our parents, who had been similarly inculcated and are victims too, yet never receive an apology from schools (even when former pupils do)
8. The link between music and memory.
9. What is the work that you are doing now?

#csa #horrishill #boardingschool #sexual abuse #boardingschoolcults

For more information please visit: http://www.wyndhamwallace.com

To purchase his first book: http://jawbonepress.com/lee-myself-i/

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

On my podcast this week I am interviewing Wyndham Wallace who is an author and music critic.

In the episode we were talking about music and how powerful it can be for healing childhood trauma.

In today's video I talk about how we store emotion in the music that we listened to at school.

Both the music that we liked and the music we didn't like.

A really fascinating exploration of music therapy to heal childhood trauma.

For the full podcast you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/NYTA8dm6X6g

Take care,

Piers

---

Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/