Finally, Drummond had everything he\u2019d ever dreamed of. He\u2019d come a long way since he was a little boy, upset at his failure to get into the grammar school. That had been a great disappointment to his mother, and to his father, who was an engineer at a pharmaceutical company. His dad had never showed much interest in him as a child. He didn\u2019t play with him and when he was naughty, he\u2019d put him over the back of a chair and wallop him. That\u2019s just the way men were in those days. Your father was feared and respected. Dads were dads.<\/p>\n
It was difficult, seeing the grammar boys pass by the house in their smart caps, every morning. Drummond had always dreamed of becoming a headteacher in a little school in a perfect village when he grew up, but he was only able to get a place at the technical school learning woodwork and bricklaying. The careers tutor almost laughed when he told him of his dreams to teach. But Drummond was ambitious. He earned a place at college, became president of its student union. He found a teaching job, married his childhood sweetheart, and slowly climbed his way to a headship in a Norfolk village. He had three children and two cars. His mother, at least, was proud.<\/p>\n
And he was sitting alone in a small room, thinking about killing himself.<\/p>\n