Playing the game

Patrick Galbraith on the grey areas of the law — and greybeards’ lore

I REMEMBER FEELING pretty putout when Bill the school woodwork teacher was jailed for a string of unpleasant sex offences. Not just because of the trauma he’d doubtless caused — or because as my friend George joked, it seemed he’d never fancied us — but because Bill had always maintained that I was the wrong’un. On countless afternoons, I was hauled into my housemaster’s study after Bill had been in to say I’d been at it again. Beyond believing in buying expensive vegetables, I have few principles. But at school I was devoted to not going out to rugby practice if it rained or snowed, and Bill was the coach of fourth XV. Sometimes when the weather was really bad, not an uncommon occurrence in Highland Perthshire, I would lie…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2021

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