Product Description

John Cornwell evokes a vanished time and way of life in this moving and, at times, troubling memoir of an adolescence spent in the isolated all-male world of the seminary.

Born into a destitute family with a dominating Irish-Catholic mother and an absconding father during World War II in London, John Cornwell's childhood was deeply dysfunctional. When he was thirteen years old he was sent to Cotton College, a remote seminary for boys in the West Midlands countryside. For the next five years Cornwell lived under an austere monastic regime as he wrestled with his emotional and spiritual demons. In the hothouse atmosphere of the seminary he strove to find stable, loving friendships among his fellows and fatherly support from the priests, one of whom proved to be a sexual predator.

The wild countryside around the seminary, the moving power of church ritual and music, and a charismatic priest enabled him to persevere. But while normal teenagers were being swept up by the rock ’n’ roll era, Cornwell and his fellow seminarians continued to be emotionally and socially repressed. Secret romantic attachments between seminarians were not uncommon; on visits home they were overwhelmed by the powerful attractions of the emerging youth culture of the 1950s. But when they returned to Cotton College, the boys were once again governed by the age-old traditions and disciplines of seminary life. And like many young seminarians, Cornwell struggled with a natural adolescent rebelliousness, which in one crucial instance provoked a crisis that would eventually lead to his decision to abandon his dream of becoming a priest.

Written with tremendous warmth and humor, Seminary Boy is a truly unforgettable memoir and a penetrating glimpse into the hidden world of seminary life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1275293 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-13
• Released on: 2006-06-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
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. (June 13)
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From Booklist
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. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Praise for Seminary Boy

“Seminary Boy is an intense, riveting story of spiritual yearning, beautifully written, told from the inside by a narrator who shrinks from nothing.” —Jonathan Englert, Chicago Tribune

“John Cornwell’s beautifully written Seminary Boy brings alive a hidden world of religious faith and its practitioners.” —USA Today

“Apart from its beautiful writing, what stamps Seminary Boy as a classic story of growing up is the kaleidoscope of perspectives it offers on the mystery of being . . . a masterpiece of storytelling.” —Andro Linklater, Spectator (UK)