Back to School 1: Tom Brown's School Days

Back to School 1: Tom Brown's School Days

From Secret Life of Books by Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole

April 7, 2026 · 1h 9m · Episode 136

About this episode

This episode explores the impact of Thomas Hughes' 'Tom Brown's School Days' on the genre of school fiction and its reflections on 19th-century education and colonialism.

Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s School Days (1857) wasn’t the first school fiction novel – that honour goes to a Sarah Fielding, sister of Henry Fielding, who published The Governess, or The Little Female Academy over a hundred years earlier. But, as is so often the case, it’s the man who takes the credit. In this episode, Sophie and Jonty look at how Thomas Hughes’ nostalgic celebration of Rugby School in the 1830s super-charged school fiction as a genre for a century to come. Billy Bunter, Molesworth, St Trinian’s and even Hogwarts owe a large debt to Hughes’ novel. The book tells the story of the eponymous Tom Brown, who goes to Rugby where he excels at rugger and cricket, is bullied by the dastardly Flashman, suffers various torments such as being ‘tossed in a blanket’ and ‘roasted over a fire’, gets the hot for his best friend’s mother and finally discovers evangelical Christianity through the inspiration of his headmaster, Thomas Arnold. Perhaps what is most striking about Tom Brown’s School Days is that it is both familiar - because of the way it continues to influence school fiction today - but deeply, deeply alien. As Thomas Hughes makes clear, the point of England’s…

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Hosts: Sophie Gee, Jonty Claypole

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Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tom Brown's School Days, The Governess, or The Little Female Academy, Billy Bunter, Molesworth, St Trinian’s, Hogwarts

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