Spoilt rotten: The decline and fall of the English public school

Eton, Harrow, Winchester and their ilk have never been cool, exactly — the tailcoats and Latin put paid to that. But it’s possible that their stock has never been lower than at this precise moment in time. From Yorkshire to Barnes, the public school is beset by scandal. Prestigious prep schools, like Boris Johnson’s alma mater Ashdown House, are being forced to close. Institutions whose alumni once went out to run the empire are forced to go abroad, cap in hand, hoping to lure the children of foreign plutocrats. A public school accent is no longer something to be bellowed across a crowded pub (probably the White Horse in Parsons Green) — but a source of shame whispered sotto voce in apologetic tones.