CHAPTER FOUR
Looking back over those years of childhood I notice two things: how lucky I was never to land in real trouble, and how mild were my emotions, compared with my sensations. For all my illicit s****l dealings with both boys and girls, no parent or teacher ever descended on me in wrath, though surely some of my young partners must have blabbed, at times! But perhaps not: after all, I never forced one of them, against his or her will. They consented, and they kept mum. Not that much was done, after all: no actual f*****g, no buggery; only the normal sports and explorations of the young. Perhaps a few parents turned a Nelson eye, remembering their own childhood. Perhaps my very shamelessness protected me, a magic shield.
The only time I was fairly caught was by the mother of the b
