John’s remaining years at school were uneventful. His battle with Nash brought him the adulation of his own year, and the grudging respect of senior years. It carried his name across the yearly tribal lines, and even some of the sixth formers sought him out and said ‘well done’. It was a heady time, but his father’s acid humour kept his true self etched out clearly, and gradually the deed passed into playground folklore leaving him unscathed.
From the box of clichés that is the source of the average school report, ‘works well, pleasant, co-operative, conscientious,’ were the most commonly drawn. Indeed, they fairly summarized the boy. Only the physical education teachers dissented somewhat. They knew he was not pulling his weight, and suspected, rightly, that this was wilful. They rather
