Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that bullying during his school years left him feeling "suicidal," but his mother's unexpected advice helped him turn his life around. The 66-year-old Clarkson's Farm star opened up about his difficult past in his recent column for The Sun.
School Years Ordeal
Clarkson previously disclosed the distressing experiences he endured at Repton School in Derbyshire. In a 2015 column for The Sunday Times, he wrote: "I was thrown on an hourly basis into the ice plunge pool, dragged from my bed in the middle of the night and beaten, made to lick the lavatories clean and all the usual humiliations that public school used back then to turn a small boy into a gibbering, sobbing, suicidal wreck."
He also described how older boys broke his belongings: "In the first two years the older boys broke pretty much everything I owned. They glued my records together, snapped my compass, ate my biscuits, defecated in my tuck box, and they cut my trousers in half with a pair of garden shears."
Mother's Surprising Counsel
When Clarkson turned to his mother, Shirley Clarkson, for comfort, she instead told him he was being bullied because he was "doing something wrong." He wrote: "After my mother said I was being bullied because I was doing something wrong, I worked out that I was a bit of a prig."
He then claimed he "took up smoking, had a few pints and maybe put one of the teachers' cars in the assembly hall." He continued: "After I'd done all that, I had some real laughs, made some great friends and the bullying stopped."
Applying the Lesson Today
Clarkson revealed he still follows his mother's guidance. Recently, he complained to Clarkson's Farm director Kit Lynch-Robinson about having a "terrible cold," expecting sympathy. Instead, Kit told him to "get a grip" because the crew was ready to film.
"Which is what we did," Clarkson wrote. "As a result, work was completed, food was produced, television was made, and the wheels of the economy were greased." He concluded: "This is what we should remember when we have problems in our heads."
If you have been affected by this story, you can contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/
