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stocky and energetic bachelor who advertised it as ‘The Best Preparatory School in England.’ Fee-Smith was a man of rigorous Anglo-Catholic beliefs whose conduct of three Chapel services on Sunday was in full priestly regalia of cassock, surplice and cope. Stories of the Prodigal Son, Daniel and the Lion and the Conversion of Saul were favourite readings. To the boys, he was known as ‘Boss’. Boss’s penchant for vestments and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Bible were to leave an indelible mark upon Chatwin.
    At Old Hall School Chatwin wore a maroon and grey cap and blazer. He played games on Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoons, and distinguished himself in boxing and acting. He was still known at this stage as Charles Bruce Chatwin; although through making a certain amount of noise he earned the nickname ‘Chatty’.
    Boss noted Chatwin’s restlessness in his first report: ‘He is rather a careless worker & his attention soon wanders. He is still very young & hardly out of the egocentric stage; his behaviour is childish & very noisy at times!’ To Hugh, his elder brother’s behaviour was easily explained. ‘From my perspective, Bruce was escaping from the trauma of war by playing out parts of his own devising, by telling stories good enough to deserve being the centre of attention.’
    Spelling was never Chatwin’s strong point. Like most pupils, he filled his weekly letters home using formulas; beginning each, as taught, with ‘I hope you are all well,’ reaching the bottom of the page with resumés of films, orders for books, for balsa wood models of houses and farms, or reports on his flu – his health was frail even at this stage; and ending with a separate line for each word.
    Dressing up, acting, religion – already he displayed what W. G. Sebald would call ‘the art of transformation that comes naturally to him, a sense of being always on stage, an instinct for the gesture that would make an effect on the audience, for the bizarre and the scandalous, the terrible and the wonderful, all these were undoubtedly prerequisites of Chatwin’s ability to write’.

To Charles and Margharita Chatwin
    The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 2 May [1948]
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    Dear Mummy and Daddy,
    It is a lovely school. We had a lovely film called The Ghost Train. It was all about a train the came into the station every year at midnight and if any one looked at it they wold die. I am in the second form.
    With love from
    Bruce
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    The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 31 October [1948]
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    Dear Mummy and daddy,
    I got on very well with the aroplane kit, but it flew into a fir tree and got torn. It was going very well until it did that. We played Packwood Haugh yesterday, and it was a draw. I was eighth in form this week. Latin is getting on very well. I have got a plus for history. In Maths I am tenth. Aunt Gracie 1 sent me a postcard of London Towr bridge. Thank you very much for sending my stamps and my cigerett cards. Boxing is getting very well. I have got to have some extra boxing. Please could I have some more stamped onvelopes because I am writing so many letters. And will you send me Swallows and Amazons.
    With love from Bruce
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    The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 29 February [1949]
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    Dear Mummy and Daddy,
    Please could you get me a Romany Book, called Out with Romany by Medow and Stream 2 Because I want it for a friend of mines birthday. Yesturday we had a lantern lecture on a man’s uncle who went to Africa to exploring and he took a lot of photographs on big game, and natives. 3 In my book Wild Life there are two photographs. One of some Rock Rabbits, and another of a jackel. It was very nice. I hope you are well. Please will you send me a book called The Open Road . 4 Tell Hugh it wont be long till I come home. Please will you save these stamps till I come home. When you see Aunt