Eton Voices: 2interviews

Eton College may not be the best school in Britain (in its 2000 survey of UK schools, the Financial Times newspaper ranked Eton 26th; Winchester College was number one), but it is certainly the most famous and the most storied. From its formation by King Henry VI, Eton's old boys consistently have become some of the most powerful or influential men in the Empire. Someday, God willing, one of its more recent graduates will become King.In his introduction, interviewer and editor Danny Dangizer (the British son of American parents and an Old Harrovian) writes, '[T]here is something very un-English about Eton ... in that it leaves its boys with an unshakeable confidence in their own ability, combined with the conviction that anything in life is achievable. While these qualities may seem unpleasantly arrogant and mark Etonians as different, even from the products of other public schools that have neither the initiative nor the resources to indulge and fulfil every boy's expectations, the success rate of Etonians in their traditional fields is an inescapable fact of life: Etonians have great expectations -- and Etonians are rarely disappointed.'Therein lies one of the weaknesses of this otherwise very interesting book. Danziger's comments sound like a self-fulfilling prophesy, given the 42 OEs he has interviewed. They include one former prime minister (Lord Home of the Hirsel), several rising (at the time of the interviews, anyway) politicians and potential prime ministers, a handful of bishops, well-known writers and artists, a general, two other Earls, three Lords .... in short, people who have indeed been successful 'in their traditional fields.' It would have been interesting, and I believe given a more complete look at Eton, if Danziger had interviewed a dozen or so OEs who had not been so successful, for whom attending Eton may have been the high point of their social achievement ... or even men who had lived perfectly productive and honorable lives without ever becoming big names in the UK.Danziger has a very light hand in these interviews -- so much so that the chapters (each in the interviewee's own words) sometimes read a little abruptly, like a Q & A session with all the Qs removed. Danziger helpfully includes a glossary of Eton slang for people who may be unfamiliar with Library or Pop. Unfortunately, he doesn't provide the same service regarding the men he interviewed. If you don't know who Andrew Callendar or The Hon. Jonathan Porritt or Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes are, for example, you'll have to try to figure it out from the context of their interviews, because Danziger won't tell you.Despite that difficulty, however, I felt like I knew Eton better after reading these interviews. For someone who already knows a little bit about the Iolani of England and its history, I recommend this for additional reading.