The Maister

Jean Borthwick and her brother should have enjoyed a happy childhood, growing up in a village in rural post-war Scotland. Their father was a brilliant and talented schoolteacher who was invariably charming to all who knew him, but at home, behind closed doors, he turned into a tyrannical monster. He would beat both his children mercilessly with a slipper or a belt for the smallest offence, from talking after lights out to looking at him in a funny way. Somehow both Jean and her brother survived their years of terror and torture to become happy and successful adults, but the shadow of those years will never go away. This is Jean’s moving account of a childhood haunted by fear.