I bought this book and read a few chapters, but I was disappointed. Most of the boys seemed to be quite stupid. Only some of them were somewhat bright. One would think that there should be some really bright boys (IQ 130+) there and the average IQ should be higher if they were from a highly selective private school.
It also surprised me that no boys tried to act like Christians (They didn’t pray, etc.). If this is a realistic portrait, does it mean that even in 1940s or 1950s almost all English choirboys were atheists?
Not all of the boys were students and choristers at a cathedral choir school; only some were and they were being led by the "head boy".
There were NO adults present, and though it is true that many Brits said prayers prior to partaking a meal back then ( far less so now do that ), having the boys pray, in the story line, does less than nothing at all re the story!
Also, I doubt that you are personally familiar with such Brit schools. OTOH, I am and they were extremely strict, rigid, and harsh; ergo, it is really not all that "strange" that once set "free" of adult control, that those boys, in particular, went wild.