Back in the village, he’d report to his teachers that he’d read about Athens and Rome in the library—i.e., about democracy and empire. He said he thought modern-day Britain was in some ways like both. They would praise his patriotic insight and send him back for more. Among those teachers was St. Osmund’s curate, a short, scrawny man with thick glasses and a scruff of hair growing up from under the back of his collar, and whose eyebrows pumped up and down when he spoke. He came to school sometimes to give moral instruction. He took the older boys off by themselves. “Men,” he’d say, “you all
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