Review Mark Stibbe has written a passionate and personal account of the ills of the British boarding school habit. He brings a rich terminology - the boarded heart, the orphan heart condition, and so on, to describe the mixture of abandonment, shame and privilege which cripples so many former boarders. Stibbe outlines a Christian path to recovery which will be welcome to those looking for a psycho-spiritual approach. --Nick Duffell Psychotherapist and author of 'The Making of Them' and 'Wounded Leaders'This is a moving and highly readable account of recovery from the trauma of early boarding. Mark Stibbe uses his own experience as the thread, weaving stories into his narrative, giving insight into what, for many, constitutes a significant form of suffering. Whilst some readers may not relate to the faith base of Mark s resolution, the author is sufficiently aware of the diverse potential readership not to alienate those who do not share his convictions. Home at Last will reach out to many who were damaged by the experience. It offers a sense of meeting and meaning, potentially alleviating the sense of isolation and shame experienced those who feel that they failed because they did not thrive within the system. It is the system and not the child that is the problem. --Joy Schaverien PhD, Jungian Analyst and author of Boarding School Syndrome.Mark Stibbe has written a powerful, accessible testimony about his traumatic time at boarding school. I thought he used the metaphor of the orphan particularly effectively, pointing out that in his case it is doubly applicable: he is also adopted. The double orphan syndrome is widespread among the British upper class because children are often handed over to a nanny at a very tender age, before being sent off to board. Home is never really a home; as the title of Mark's book so aptly captures. However, I wish Mark had distinguished more clearly between his able critique of elective boarding, drawing largely on attachment and trauma theory, and his espousal of his type of Christianity in which the Heavenly Father is presented as the ultimate cure for early ruptured attachments. For many boarding school survivors that might be a questionable assumption, along with the highly gendered language which is hard to apply in our post-feminist culture. I very much liked Mark's quoting of actor Benedict Cumberbatch and his passion to see this [early boarding] prevented. Mark's book is a welcome addition to the growing literature about the trauma caused by boarding school, and will be particularly useful for Christian believers. --Simon Partridge, Writer and trauma survivor About the Author Dr Mark Stibbe is an award winning Christian author who has over thirty popular books and five academic books in print. Many of his popular books have been published by Monarch, (I am Your Father, 2010), SPCK (My Fathers Tears, 2014) and Authentic Media (The Presents of God, 2014). His academic books are required reading in universities and seminaries all over the world. Recently Mark has taken to writing works of fiction and is currently collaborating with GP Taylor in developing a series of novels about an English Spy Vicar in the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Mark is also founder and CEO of KWS (Kingdom Writing Solutions), a holistic service for Christian writers. He is also a popular contributor at writer's conferences and workshops and has recently started Stibbe Webinars, a web based interactive teaching and training initiative.
Trustpilot
1 week ago
1 day ago
