Seminary Boy

April 10, 2006
By age 11, Cornwell had a well-deserved reputation as "an academic reject and troublemaker." Besides running with young thugs in London's East End, he had attacked a nun, a teacher at his school. But after a stranger molested him, he became a devout altar boy and, two years later, a priest-in-training at Cotton College. There he lost his Cockney accent, felt schoolboy crushes and constantly wrestled with an overzealous conscience, his scruples exacerbated by priest-teachers ranging from rigid to predatory. Helping him navigate stormy adolescence was the brilliant and sensible Father Armishaw, literature teacher and music lover, who cared for him as his own troubled father and volatile mother were never able to do. Readers who objected to Cornwell's controversial bestseller Hitler's Pope
may not appreciate his portrayal of Catholics in the 1950s, and the memoir police may accuse him of erring on the side of invention, especially since he kept no diaries. Despite its occasional touch of narcissism—his culminating struggle is with "the embodiment of all those in my life who had failed to see my worth"—the book is a fine read. With a literary novelist's eye for detail and ear for dialogue, Cornwell has written a psychologically astute and often touching coming-of-age story.

May 15, 2006
Cornwell, author, journalist, and fellow at Jesus College in Cambridge, England, here tells the story of his life at an all-male school in the 1950s. Son of a struggling working-class family in London, John was sent to Cotton College to become a Catholic priest. Here, during his teen years, he experienced the best and worst of pre -Vatican II seminary life. Some of his teachers were pious and dedicated men; others were sexual predators. He had close friendships and fierce rivalries with other boys and felt forbidden romantic attractions. Though Cornwell chose not to continue into the priesthood, this book is not a denunciation of the system. Instead, it is a bittersweet recollection of a vanished world of religious insights and social isolation that profoundly influenced the author -s character. Part spiritual odyssey, part boarding school story, Cornwell -s well-crafted memoir is filled with vivid descriptions of people and places and a young boy -s struggle to find himself. Recommended for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/06.]" -C. Robert Nixon, MLS, Lafayette, IN"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2006
The best-selling author of " Hitler's Pope" recounts his coming-of-age as a student at a seminary in post-World War II England. A throwaway child labeled as "an academic reject and troublemaker," Cornwell was sent to board at Cotton College at the age of 13. There he embarked upon an emotional, spiritual, and physical odyssey that encompassed both the best and the worst of the institutionalized Catholic Church. Although beset by a priest who was a sexual predator, the troubled youth was also befriended by Father Armishaw, the empathetic priest who introduced the impressionable Cockney youngster to new avenues of culture, inquisition, and independent thinking. Although often disturbing, Cornwell's experiences are recounted with disarmingly frank honesty, balancing both the positives and the negatives of his life and times at Cotton College. As an interesting sidebar, Cornwell contrasts his cloistered existence in the seminary with the youth-oriented pop culture emerging in 1950s-era England. A heartrending and heartfelt memoir from a gifted writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)