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'It is night. They move with such stealth they could be almost floating along the road. I can't see faces, just the outline of their movement. But when the moon drifts out from behind a cloud, bathing the road in an urgent sort of light, I see how they're all gazing up towards me.
''They're coming back,' I murmur. I turn to Kendall, and she puts her sewing aside, eyes on me. They never waiver.
'It was supposed to be a place where teenagers would learn resilience, confidence and independence, where long hikes and runs in the bush would make their bodies strong and foster a connection with the natural world. Living in bare wooden huts, cut off from the outside world, the students would experience a very different kind of schooling, one intended to have a strong influence over the kind of adults they would eventually become.
'Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Starford spent a year at this school in the bush. In her boarding house sixteen girls were left largely unsupervised, a combination of the worst behaved students and some of the most socially vulnerable. As everyone tried to fit in and cope with their feelings of isolation and homesickness, Rebecca found herself joining ranks with the powerful girls, becoming both a participant–and later a victim–of various forms of bullying and aggression.
'Bad Behaviour tells the story of that year, a time of friendship and joy, but also of shame and fear. It explores how those crucial experiences affected Rebecca as an adult and shaped her future relationships, and asks courageous questions about the nature of female friendship.
'Moving, wise and painfully honest, this extraordinary memoir shows how bad behaviour from childhood, in all its forms, can be so often and so easily repeated throughout our adult lives.' (Publication summary)
Adaptations
- form y Bad Behaviour ( dir. Corrie Chen ) Australia : Stan Matchbox Pictures , 2023 24260119 2023 series - publisher film/TV When 25-year-old Jo Mackenzie meets former schoolmate Alice Kang, she remembers the year they spent at the wilderness campus of their exclusive boarding school.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Girls in Boarding Schools : Navigating the Self and Others
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: Thoughts from an Idle Hour 2015-; -
Well Read
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 March 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography ; The Abyssinian Contortionist : Hope, Friendship and Other Circus Acts 2015 single work biography -
Review : Bad Behaviour
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 21 February 2015;
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Review : Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , March 2015; (p. 59)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Nasty Streak at a Rural Retreat
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7-8 March 2015; (p. 18)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography
-
Turning Tarnished Silver Creek into Gold
Emerging from the Jungle
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 February 2015; (p. 28-29) The Age , 21 February 2015; (p. 32) The Canberra Times , 21 February 2015; (p. 20)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Nasty Streak at a Rural Retreat
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7-8 March 2015; (p. 18)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Review : Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , March 2015; (p. 59)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Review : Bad Behaviour
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 21 February 2015;
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography -
Well Read
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 March 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Bad Behaviour : A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School 2015 single work autobiography ; The Abyssinian Contortionist : Hope, Friendship and Other Circus Acts 2015 single work biography -
Girls in Boarding Schools : Navigating the Self and Others
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: Thoughts from an Idle Hour 2015-;