The Enigma of Kidson

The Enigma of Kidson is a scintillating and often hilarious biography of an inspirational and controversial history master, Michael Kidson, who taught a generation of pupils at Eton for forty years. Forget Eton, think Mr Chips, The History Boys and Dead Poets Society. Kidson was a maverick; funny, eccentric, breathtakingly rude, quick-tempered, insulting, kind, compassionate and loyal, with a secret past about which he never spoke. Among his pupils were David Cameron, Matthew Pinsent, Justin Welby, Dominic West, and 'Lupin', Johnnie Boden, Nat Rothschild and many others, who all tell stories and anecdotes about how he changed their lives. This biography unravels his complex character and discovers that it has been formed by an early life that is stranger than fiction.

Jamie Blackett was born in 1964 was educated at Ludgrove, Eton - where he was tutored by Michael Kidson - and Sandhurst. After working in South Africa he joined the Coldstream Guards, serving in Northern Ireland, the First Gulf War, Hong Kong, The Falkland Islands, Zimbabwe and Germany. He returned to Galloway where he is now a farmer and a freelance journalist writing on farming and the countryside.