A Class of Their Own by Matt Knott

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A naked Russian oligarch is spanking me in his basement. His weapon is a birch branch, the setting his luxurious home sauna. Above us is 30,000 square feet of one of Moscow's most obscene private homes, an original Damien Hirst above the fireplace, a vacuum cleaning system built into the skirting boards.

Invisible speakers serenade us with a desolate pan pipe cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'. A light display rotates kaleidoscopically, illuminating the oligarch's genitals in a variety of unexpected hues. Everyone is silent.

Then the oligarch's son Nikita looks at me with a mysterious smile. 'Now my mother will bring us honey.'Matt Knott spent over a decade traveling the globe as a private tutor. He has taught Shakespeare in Moscow, times tables in Tuscany, and is still trying to figure out how to explain long division.

With brilliant honesty and wit, he takes us inside a world most of us only glimpse speeding past in a luxury SUV. Unfolding across four continents and featuring a colourful cast of butlers, billionaires and yummy mummies, this is a hilarious and touching chronicle of an unforgettable time.