Charles Spencer has discussed why he wrote his memoir, A Very Private School, in an interview.

The book, which was published last year, details the sexual abuse he and other boys experienced at Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire in the 1970s.

Writing the tome was so traumatic that Earl Spencer had to undergo residential treatment after its completion, going to a facility abroad for PTSD, saying he was ‘overwhelmed by the tale that I felt compelled to tell’.

Discussing why he wrote the book in an interview with the Times, the 60-year-old said his goal had been to create a truthful about that time period.

He explained: ‘It [the book] is not born of self-pity, nor is it an attempt at revenge, but it is instead my best attempt at laying down a clear and honest record of a time and a place where very bad things happened far too often.’

Since the release of his memoir, Charles says he has received ‘many dozens’ of letters from people around the world, who detailed the ‘appalling suffering’ inflicted on them by teachers when they were children.

He also discussed how the parents of children abused at boarding school were not aware of what was happening.

Talking about his own circumstances, he explained: ‘My father was a very trusting sort of man, whom I believe understood that boarding school was tough, but he did not suspect how deviant it could also be. Meanwhile my mother was not overly engaged in the institution to which my background demanded I be committed. She visited Maidwell for an hour the February before I went there.’

Earl Spencer (pictured while appearing on ITV programme Lorraine) went to a facility for residential treatment for PTSD after writing the book

Furthermore, he said, none of the boys who told him about undergoing abuse at Maidwell ever told their parents – explaining that they didn’t think to do so.  

‘I believe this is because, being so young, we had so little context to our lives,’ he said. ‘We did not know what was happening to us was wrong.’

In addition, Earl Spencer said, there was an ‘understanding’ that they were lucky to be attending the prestigious school – at a great financial cost to their parents, so complaining would have appeared ‘very ungrateful’.   

The memoir tells how a predatory assistant matron – described as a ‘voracious paedophile’ – preyed on Charles and other young boys, grooming and then abusing them in their beds.

He also claims John Porch, the ‘terrifying and sadistic’ head teacher of the prep school, inflicted brutal beatings on the children and seemingly gaining sexual pleasure from the violence. Porch has since died.

Speaking at the Hay literature festival last June, Earl Spencer claimed a school master who allegedly abused him and was ‘very violent’ lives close to his estate, Althorp House.

He also knew where a female member of staff at the boarding school – who he accuses of abuse – lives, adding: ‘I’m sure justice may well catch up with her quite soon.’ 

The earl said: ‘There are two [staff members] that are still alive… I had to give them false names [in the book] because the lawyers were worried about it.

Charles (pictured with his father Earl Spencer) said the older man ‘did not suspect how deviant’ boarding school could be

A Very Private School (pictured) by Charles Spencer was the author’s ‘best attempt at laying down a clear and honest record of a time and a place where very bad things happened far too often’

‘I wasn’t – there’s nothing in that book that I cannot corroborate with various witnesses.

‘One of them was a very abusive master who hated me and was very violent with me’.

He claimed the master did not live very far from his home, but added: ‘I don’t want to see him.’

The historian inherited Althorp, he and the late Princess of Wales’s childhood home, in 1992.

He lives on the 13,000-acre estate in Northamptonshire with his wife, Countess Karen Spencer, and their 11-year-old daughter Charlotte Diana.

Because of his own experience, the earl has warned children as young as eight should never go to boarding school. 

Speaking on Lorraine Kelly’s show ahead of the book’s release last March, he said: ‘When I went for my first night at this school I had never stayed away from home without a family member and the horror of it – I had nightmares for six months before going because I couldn’t aged seven and then eight get it into my head that this was going to be the case.

‘But being sent at seven or eight is terrible and I remember there was one boy who went when I was there and he was looking for his parents the first day.

Diana Spencer and her brother Charles Spencer at their home in Berkshire in 1968 – before he went to boarding school

A young Earl Spencer, three, is pictured with his sister, Diana, in 1967 before he was sent to boarding school 

‘They hadn’t told him they were going to leave him at the school. So he thought he was going on a trip with his parents and then he started looking for them but they had gone. They had gone home and he wasn’t going to see them for five weeks.

‘I think being sent away at a very delicate age such as seven or eight is really – I don’t support that at all.

‘I have seven children and two of them have chosen to go to boarding school in their mid-teens. And that is fine – their decision. And if they decided it wasn’t for them, they knew there was an exit plan.’

Earl Spencer also believes due to his young age, he was less likely to report the abuse to an adult once it started. He said: ‘I think kids at that age, no matter their background, have no context for their life, they just think this is what their parents expect and this is the framework they have been given. I found with all my friends none of them told their parents.’ 

He continued: ‘And I must say another thing, coming from the rather uptight background that a lot of us came from back in the 70s we didn’t have conversations with our parents on deep levels.

‘In fact one of my friends said his abiding memory of being sent to this place aged eight was how strange it was to be in a car with his father because they had never had a conversation before.’

Maidwell Hall is ten miles from Althorp House, the family seat of the Spencers, where Diana is buried. A feeder for elite private schools including Eton and Winchester, it only admitted boys until 2010 and currently charges fees of up to £31,700 a year.

Earl Spencer, who joined the school in 1972, recalls how boys were told to refer to all female staff as ‘Please’ instead of ‘Miss’ – a rule that was meant to instil good manners, but which Earl Spencer believed was ‘deeply odd’.

Earl Spencer’s comment on the topic of boarding schools came after Maidwell Hall announced it had reported itself to the local authority designated officer.

In a lengthy statement the school said: ‘It is sobering to read about the experiences Charles Spencer and some of his fellow alumni had at the school, and we are sorry that was their experience. 

‘It is difficult to read about practices which were, sadly, sometimes believed to be normal and acceptable at that time.

‘Within education today, almost every facet of school life has evolved significantly since the 1970s. At the heart of the changes is the safeguarding of children, and promotion of their welfare.

‘Although we have not directly received any claims from ex-pupils, considering what has been reported, the school has followed the statutory process and made a referral to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer).

‘We would encourage anyone with similar experiences to come forward and contact either Maidwell Hall, the LADO or the police.’