Seventeen: The shocking true story of a teacher's affair with her student

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Gibson’s “Seventeen” is a stark reminder of the lasting consequences of impulsive actions and the devastating effects of abuse. It’s a narrative that leaves readers questioning the boundaries of trust in literature and the responsibilities of authors when dealing with sensitive topics. Critical Review I cried when Joe details their marriage and that they had children while he was at University. This was cleverly done as, because the book was nearing its end, it was easy to assume that things would somehow crash and burn after his A levels. But truly, deep down I should have known this would be the case and the fact he stayed with her for seventeen years is tragically not unusual. This happens a lot in instances of abuse and it is harrowing to think of what Joe endured for so long and that this book was really only the beginning. I name no names but older women in a position of power grooming a younger man and having children with him suddenly is something that happens right in the public eye as well. I think many people would benefit from reading this book. Boy 17 has affair with his teacher she is 35. This is his memoir, his feelings about it all seventeen years later when he is 34.

The claustrophobic nature of the first-person narrative means we never really get to learn Miss P’s motives. Why does she pursue him? Does she understand what she’s doing? The author cites a doctor who has categorised woman who sexually abuse. It's fascinating. There are five categories - immature regressed, sexual and risky, saviour syndrome, unrequited infatuated and psychologically troubled. They've been compiled because of "heightened awareness and interest in organisational child sexual abuse over recent years." If the law was as it is now , when they had their affair she would have been arrested for a criminal act. He leaves her at the age of 34, perhaps all the failings in his life are her fault. He leaves her with two children to raise and goes to live on a boat. Joe is just like any other 17 year old boy, attending school in London, when one of his teachers—35 year old Miss P, or Ali—takes an interest in him. This book has honestly haunted me since I finished reading it. You grow so fond of Joe as such a compelling and authentic seventeen year old narrator. There were moments I laughed out loud because of his warmth and down to earth nature.

It has been on my mind for the whole time I've been reading and beyond, and I don't think I'll be free of its impact for a very long time. Miss P is an adult she wants Joe to go on holiday with her to Spain, where they have sex, and she has thought up a plan to not make anyone suspicious. She also has other plans for Joe to divert any suspicion away from them.

Consequently, for much of the story, he’s essentially a cast member of The Inbetweeners, beyond thrilled that he’s having actual sex with an actual grown-up woman. When she undresses in front of him, he strives for a compliment: “You’re completely naked and your skin is all olivey and milky.” He admits that “I’m pretty useless when it comes to tits”, but when, a few chapters on, he manages to refer to them as “breasts”, he self-congratulates for seeming more “grown-up”. Engaging and engrossing, frank and frankly troubling, Seventeen is a book not easily forgotten' - Karen Joy Fowler When we read news stories about male teachers sexually abusing their female students, we are outraged and demand justice for the victim. When the gender roles are reversed, however, there’s a tendency for people to laugh it off, to suggest that the boy probably enjoyed every minute of it. But abuse is abuse, and rape is rape, regardless of who is in the position of power. It is written in a more fiction than a non-fiction narrative, which I loved, but because it is written that way, I kept on forgetting that this is non-fiction. The book completely gripped me, I couldn't stop reading (the short chapters helped), I basically inhaled the book in 4 days. In this unflinching memoir, Joe Gibson recounts the affair he had as a schoolboy with his 35-year-old teacher, whom he calls Miss P. The year is 1991 and 17-year-old Gibson, who has chosen to protect his identity by using a pseudonym, has been awarded a bursary to an elite private school to study for his A-levels. Since the school is 150 miles away, his parents arrange for him to stay with friends who allow him use of their spare room, but otherwise leave him to his own devices.in parts it sulky and finger pointing on a life that he seems to say if it were not for her he would have been at Oxford would have been a success, have had good times with his mates. its like he was four years old and has been abducted, not a 6 foot randy seventeen year old who already had sex. Cleverly, ahead of their long adventure, the book begins with a warning of how impressionable a fantasising teenage boy can be. Joe relates the words of a Californian psychiatrist as a warning - "Teenagers are capable of learning a lot , but the parts of their brains related to emotions and decision making are still in the works...particularly vulnerable to risky behaviour." Gallery has signed Seventeen, an “achingly poignant” memoir written under the pseudonym Joe Gibson. Joe Gibson’s Seventeen was presented to me for review as a memoir of a relationship between a man of seventeen and a woman in her mid-thirties. He was a public school pupil and she was his Spanish teacher and all in all it looked at first glance like an interesting account of one aspect of British life in the early 1990s, which appealed to the social historian in me. However, having read the volume, it also reads to me as a memoir that has been woked-up to appeal to the Guardian’s fanbase. This is until Miss P at school, needs help from Joe taking boxes to her car, and then onto her flat, with Joe helping taking the boxes up into her flat. This is the start of Miss P starting a grooming illicit affair with her student, Joe Gibson, but it has to remain a big secret.

I read and enjoyed every single word of Seventeen memoir written by Joe Gibson, which is written under a pseudonym. This memoir outlines just how easy it is for abuse to take place and how it can happen anywhere and with anyone. Joe is a highly intelligent boy and this only illuminates the idea that teenage children do not have fully formed brains. It doesn't matter if you are applying to Oxbridge or think of yourself as mature or more developed than other kids your age. Once again, this memoir just shows how easy it is for grooming to happen, and not just in one instance, but in a way that traps a person for years. Ali's grooming was aided her physical appearance, authority, the absence of protection for Joe from the school, particularly to a boy and, of course, Joe's undeveloped brain. Miss P, or Ali, constantly displays gaslighting and emotional coercion techniques to get Joe to act in a certain way, alienate him from his friends and family, and manipulate him to change his future for her at the expense of his education and career.

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We are conditioned to think that grooming of teenagers is the territory of the male, yet this memoir exposes the scheming and manipulation (some) women are capable of and the impact this can have on the lives of boys ill equipped to navigate it. As the mother of a seventeen year old son, it evoked so many feelings in me. Anger with the female character, who should have taken her duty of care more seriously. I disliked how she exploited Joe’s home circumstances to deflect her colleagues’ suspicions of inappropriate behaviour on her part. I felt sadness at the lost friendships and life experiences of a youth vulnerable to temptation and the promise of love. Teenage boys are easy targets, because of their hormones and the fact that they are not fully developed cognitively. They are more than capable of taking risks and getting themselves into hot water when it comes to sex; but isn’t that ok if it’s with boys, girls or others the same or similar age? What makes this so different is that Ali was Joe’s teacher. She had a duty of care. She was in loco parentis. She had responsibility.