Article: My prep school headmaster was a sadistic brute - but at least the experience made me a better writer; Writer Anthony Horowitz, famous for his Alex Rider books and TV series Foyle's War, says unhappy schooldays gave him the spur to become a children's author.

Byline: JOYCE LYNN

MY PARENTS were upper-middle-class Jewish and very wealthy. We had a chauffeur, two gardeners, a cook and a maid. We also had a governess, an ex-WAAF officer who was the original for the character of Sam in Foyle's War.

She played a major role in my young life as she looked after me more than my parents did.

The house on Uxbridge Road, in Stanmore, where I was born and brought up is long gone - there are now 16 large, detached houses in what was once our garden.

It should have been a wonderful childhood. We were driven around in a Rolls-Royce and had fabulous holidays. But now I look back with a certain degree of ...

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