Former schoolmates challenged Jason Arday childhood speaking claims after he said he was unable to speak until he was 11. Jonathan Stewart, who knew him from childhood, said Arday was the class clown at Heathbrook primary school and recalled him putting on accents and singing songs.
Arday wrote in his memoir Great and Unfortunate Things that he spoke for the first time just a few days shy of his 12th birthday, during a speech therapy session when Katrina said hello to him. He also said he learned to read and write at 18 and joined Cambridge at 37.
Jonathan Stewart on Heathbrook primary school
Stewart said Arday grew up in south London and was known at Heathbrook primary school in Nine Elms, south-west London, as a good mimic. He said, “He was always cracking jokes. He was the comedian guy, he would even put on voices,” and added, “I don’t remember too much about him but I certainly recollect him being able to speak.”
He also said Arday would entertain other pupils in the Sunday school minibus by singing the jingle from the 90s advert for Baby All Gone dolls. That account sits against Arday’s memoir, which says he was non-verbal throughout childhood and that his mother witnessed the moment he first spoke.
Nick Clark and Mike Freeman
Arday denied the accounts provided by Stewart and the second man. He organized for statements from Nick Clark and Mike Freeman to be sent, and they said the memoir accurately reflected the boy they remembered at school.
Nick Clark wrote, “As a boy, I remember Jason not speaking and being regularly removed from class for additional support throughout his” and the dispute now sits inside a wider scrutiny of the life story that helped define his public profile at Cambridge. Arday resigned last week amid mounting questions about his academic work and statements he had made about his past.
Great and Unfortunate Things
Great and Unfortunate Things was published by Simon & Schuster in the US on Tuesday and is due in the UK on 27 August. The memoir’s account of childhood speech remains central to the challenge raised by former schoolmates, and the next question is whether any additional school records or witnesses are brought forward to support either version of events.
