Maiden voyage

"Maiden Voyage" is an account of author Denton Welch´s sixteenth year, when he ran away from his English public school and was then sent to Shanghai to live with his father. The book was Welch´s first and created a sensation on publication in 1943; its frank description of public schoolboy life forced publisher Herbert Read to initially seek advice from libel lawyers. Even Winston Churchill´s private secretary gossiped in a letter that, "the book was reeking with homosexuality? I think I must get it." Today, Welch´s expressions of sexuality may seem more demure than outrageous, but his portrayal of the passions and humiliations of adolescence is graphic...