Anthony Horowitz says private schools are 'destroying their children'

• The 68-year-old novelist was sent to boarding school at eight-years-old
• Attended Orley Farm Prep in Harrow and Rugby School in Warwickshire

Anthony Horowitz has claimed that parents are ‘destroying their children’ by sending them to private school and spoke of the ‘incalculable damage’ caused by his private education.

The 68-year-old novelist was sent to boarding school at eight-years-old and admitted in the aftermath of his ‘terrible’ experience he was a ‘terribly damaged person’.

The James Bond and Alex Rider author revealed he returned to the school many years later and suffered ‘palpitations’ causing him to nearly pass out and resulted in him being ‘escorted’ out of the dining hall.

Horowitz attended Orley Farm Prep school in Harrow, London and then Rugby School in Warwickshire.

He told the BBC Headliners podcast: ‘I was damaged. I mean my schooling, the five years I spent in a school in North London did incalculable damage.

The 68-year-old novelist was sent to boarding school at eight-years-old and admitted in the aftermath of his ‘terrible’ experience he was a ‘terribly damaged person’

Horowitz attended Orley Farm Prep school in Harrow, London and then Rugby School (pictured) in Warwickshire

The novelist said his ‘terrible’ experiences has had an influence upon his writing (file picture)

‘And I have met many other men who were at that school, at that time, who have agreed that that is what happened.

‘And it is one of the weird things about this country, that parents should pay so much money and put so much effort into destroying their children.’

READ MORE: Parents back private schools as 72% say it is right for children to attend them and do not want them abolished, poll finds

The author spoke of returning to the school for a TV interview many years later.

He said: ‘But I will never forget going back to the school, just once, to be interviewed actually by a TV company.

‘And I went into this place, and it’s a modern school now, and lots of it has been changed, but they’ve kept the core of the school the same.

‘The dining room, the headmaster’s study, the long corridor with lockers of which halfway down, third row from the top was number 64, my locker.

‘As I walked down this corridor, I began to feel a little bit ill. I got into the dining room, and very nearly passed out.’

The author continued: ‘I am not an emotional person, I am not somebody who needs to go to therapy, I don’t break down, I keep my emotions very much under control.

‘But as I stood in that room, I felt my palms were sweating. I couldn’t breathe, I was having palpitations, the room was spinning.

‘I literally had to be sort of escorted back out into the fresh air to recompose myself and it was that moment, and this was about 15 years ago, it was at that moment that I knew that all the jokes and all the bravura was covering this terribly damaged person.’

The novelist said his ‘terrible’ experiences has had an influence upon his writing.

The James Bond and Alex Rider author revealed he returned to the school many years later and suffered ‘palpitations’ causing him to nearly pass out

He said: ‘Growing up I was always making jokes about it, if you read my early kid’s books they are all similar.

‘They are about a rich kid with ghastly parents going to a horrible school, having a terrible time, breaking away and having adventures.

‘That was how I saw my childhood at the time.

‘I was always imagining while I was at school that something would happen and I’d be able to break out and run away and have all sorts of escapades.’

He added: ‘But as I say, I’ve been able to cope with it and to an extent I think the issues of my childhood have really fuelled the writing I’ve done and it’s been the fire that’s been burning for something like 60 years now.

‘And keeps me determined to go back, and write another book, and tell another story, and find another escape, and entertain people, and not necessarily talk about it.’

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