Inspiration

The School

 * St. Clarence's School is based on The Duke of Kent School (formerly known as The Woolpit School until 1976) in Ewhurst, Surrey. Much of the geography of St. Clarence's (e.g long drive and school on top of a steep hill) is reflected from it's real life basis. A similar story of a bell tower ghost also exists at the school, from where I derived my story of The Ghost of Old Nick.




 * The architecture of the main school building of St. Clarence's I heavily based off of the famous Elizabethan era stately home Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire. Complete with red and grey brickwork, spiralling chimneys and stone archways.




 * I wrote a scene which took place in the dining hall inside the school after having seen a photo of the wood-lined and white-washed dining hall at Ludgrove Boarding School, Berkshire. This is where a few Royals, such as Prince William and Harry, went to school in their early years.

Pottington Green
When writing the nearby village of Pottington Green into my play, I drew inspiration from several places I've been over the past few years.


 * The first basis for Pottington Green is the quaint little village of Goathland in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. This village is famous for having been the setting of Aidensfield in the long-running ITV show Heartbeat.
 * Secondly, I also based it on the village of Shere, near Guildford, in the heart of the Surrey countryside. I have gone there so many times since I was little and it's always been my happy place.
 * My last basis for Pottington Green is the village of Ripley in Surrey.

Characters

 * The character of Headmaster Mr. Joseph Garringden is actually based on myself. I wanted to reflect the fact that typical English gentlemen are sensitive and do have emotions, but just are afraid to express them in fear of being embarrassed or bullied. Like me, Garringden has a harsh side but deep down has raw emotions. In the play, he wants to make his father proud by trying to run the school like he did and then realises he doesn't have to be his father as he's special in his own right, which I used as a metaphor for the idea that everyone is individual and at the same time reflecting something that happened in my own life. When I was younger, my father tried to press his ways onto me and for a long time I was striving to be like him (like Garringden does in the play) until I realised that I didn't want to be like him at all, and so I wanted to reflect that change I had into a character. Therefore making the writing sessions a very cathartic process for me.


 * However, not all is me. Some elements of Garringden's personality were taken from my old secondary school Headmaster Mr. James Rodgers, who is very well-known for his authoritive manner and firm-but-fair behaviour. As a former alumni of that school, I will always respect him and wanted to subtly honour him by including certain things I remember about him from when I was there. He has always been very proud of the school and would do anything for it to strive, a feeling which I have reflected within Garringden in my play.


 * The music teacher Miss Henrietta "Hetty" Goodwin is actually based upon someone I know and I had a crush on, of whom I will not reveal because I wouldn't want to embarrass them. I wrote the character to mirror Garringden's harsh and defensive exterior, as the person who I based it upon was exactly that for me. They managed to bring me out of my boring shell and help me to achieve my full potential, just as Miss Goodwin does to Garringden in the play. Maybe one day I will properly thank that person, in private.


 * The character of Luke Lancaster, the best friend to Head Boy Frederick Fornsbry, was somewhat influenced by my best friend Callum, so if you're reading this...surprise! I desperately wanted to make the most realistic representation of school boys (even if my play is set in the 1940s) and Callum was the first person that came to mind. I hope he doesn't mind me saying, I can because he's my best friend, but I wanted to include his sometimes annoying behaviour that most people are familiar with onto a character. But on the other hand because I'm kind, I wanted to also show his genuine kind-natured side.


 * Member of the teaching staff Mrs. Victoria Ballan was also based on one of my English teachers in secondary school. Like Ballan, she used to go on random rants and tell us stories, completely forgetting what she was teaching, until she told us that we should have making notes the whole time. Their personalities are exactly the same. However, somehow Ballan gets rather flirty at one point, which is not in the real person's persona at all.