Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that when he was bullied at school, his mother, Shirley Clarkson, gave him traumatic advice: 'Well, if everyone is bullying you, you must be doing something wrong.' The 66-year-old TV presenter and columnist shared the story in his column for The Sun, noting that she 'would be arrested for even thinking such a ridiculous thought.'
Bullying at Repton School
Clarkson has previously detailed the severe bullying 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 added that older boys broke his possessions, glued his records, snapped his compass, ate his biscuits, defecated in his tuck box, and cut his trousers in half with garden shears.
Changing Behavior to Stop Bullying
Despite the traumatic advice, Clarkson claims it helped him. 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. So I took up smoking, had a few pints and maybe put one of the teachers' cars in the assembly hall. After I'd done all that, I had some real laughs, made some great friends and the bullying stopped.'
Applying the Advice Today
Clarkson says he still follows his mother's advice. Recently, when he complained to Clarkson's Farm director Kit Lynch-Robinson about a terrible cold, Kit told him to 'get a grip' because the crew was waiting. Clarkson wrote: 'Which is what we did. As a result, work was completed, food was produced, television was made, and the wheels of the economy were greased.' He finished the column by saying, 'This is what we should remember when we have problems in our heads.'
Support Resources
For emotional support, the Samaritans can be reached 24 hours a day at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org. PAPYRUS offers suicide prevention for young people via HOPELINE247 at 0800 068 4141 or pat@papyrus-uk.org.
