I was sent away to boarding school at the age of 9. At first I was miserable. And then there was... http://alphamin.blog.co.uk/2006/04/15/the_shittish_empire~730411/
But by the age of eleven, I became a bit of an entrepreneur, running a bookmakers (bets on the Grand National, Boat Race – with only two runners not a good idea – plus school boxing fights and sports day). I sold shares in my projects, which also included a stationery hire business and buying all the conkers from the only horse chestnut tree, so I had a monopoly. This last scheme didn’t work out, as the other boys lost interest in conker-fights by the time all the conkers had disappeared into my locker.
There they had to share space with my sweets. Because money was banned at my boarding school, the only currency came from our weekly sweet and chocolate ration (although strictly speaking, sweet rationing had been abolished a few months before the begiining of my entrepreneurial phase).
I've never had a sweet tooth so in the end I had to throw a lot of it away.
