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A Class of Their Own: Adventures in Tutoring the Super-Rich
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.
'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.
Hardcover
Published February 3, 2022
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358 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 8, 2023
Loved this one
May 11, 2022
Brilliant and so damn funny! I haven’t laughed out loud while reading a book in a long time, very refreshing! I can’t believe Matt managed to put up with being a rich kids tutor for so long - being exposed to a strange environment like that would give me a headache and I’d probably quit within the first kid spewing rude words at me.
The kids can’t help it, of course - it’s their parents, after all, who are too busy holidaying in Dubai to bother helping with them with their maths homework. I praise Matt for being the one to do so, and I loved the parts when he added text messages from his parents and best friend and his undying wish to make a film. Well done mate - I hope you’re happier now since retiring from tutoring!
The kids can’t help it, of course - it’s their parents, after all, who are too busy holidaying in Dubai to bother helping with them with their maths homework. I praise Matt for being the one to do so, and I loved the parts when he added text messages from his parents and best friend and his undying wish to make a film. Well done mate - I hope you’re happier now since retiring from tutoring!
August 14, 2022
Hilarious and smart.
November 8, 2022
Damn these rich people
July 10, 2025
It was an eye-opening experience, offering a clear and thoughtful look at how the ultra-wealthy are educated and live
June 11, 2022
Easy to read and well written for the most part. I really enjoyed the anecdotes. I thought it started really well but ended less well. Ultimately people pick up this book because they're interested in hearing about the tutoring itself rather than Matt's subsequent screenplay career. I felt there was too much on this towards the end of the book and it was a bit autobiographical and boring.
March 13, 2023
I loved this, it was brilliant! It was very funny, I am not entirely sure it it was all completely true and some seemed a bit far fetched but Matt works with some very wealthy people so I suppose nothing is off limits!
Matt always wanted to be a writer and when things weren't going as planned for him he got in touch with his friend Zoe, who managed to get him a job tutoring wealthy children. He winged it at first but soon became quite successful and seemingly got paid a lot for doing not a great lot! A very funny account of some of the families he worked with and how the other half really live! It's a world some of us can only imagine yet Matt found himself even sharing homes with this people.
As part of his job, he was taken on family holidays to some amazing places and into some of the worlds most expensive homes! What a job! I would love to do something like this, it must be so interesting. And get paid to go to some places like Dubai, all expenses paid and only a little work whilst there, must be fantastic! I hope he brings more books out because this only covered his career for 2 years, I am sure there is more to tell!
Great read
Matt always wanted to be a writer and when things weren't going as planned for him he got in touch with his friend Zoe, who managed to get him a job tutoring wealthy children. He winged it at first but soon became quite successful and seemingly got paid a lot for doing not a great lot! A very funny account of some of the families he worked with and how the other half really live! It's a world some of us can only imagine yet Matt found himself even sharing homes with this people.
As part of his job, he was taken on family holidays to some amazing places and into some of the worlds most expensive homes! What a job! I would love to do something like this, it must be so interesting. And get paid to go to some places like Dubai, all expenses paid and only a little work whilst there, must be fantastic! I hope he brings more books out because this only covered his career for 2 years, I am sure there is more to tell!
Great read
August 28, 2022
For anyone who has tried to encourage a child to learn, or to prepare for an exam, or build on their knowledge for school... this is well worth a read! It's light-hearted and big-hearted too! It also reinforced the old adage that the grass isn't always greener on the other side... Matt may tutor the super-rich but money doesn't necessarily buy happiness, and I found myself feeling so sorry for these privileged children - often victims of their parents' desires. It is wonderfully told though, with some fabulously vivid imagery! I really enjoyed it - an easy, enjoyable, entertaining read!
October 3, 2022
A really funny read, despite, and in face of, the capitalist vulgarity on display here. The author discusses his experiences tutoring the children of (stereotypes yet actual!) super rich contemptibles. Loads of successful humour, especially in the first half. It does seem a little simplified and exaggerated in parts, and so doesn’t get into a more serious exploration of the whole glamorous/infuriating/horrific capitalism-gone-perverse private tutoring world, but still, funny and interesting, well worth a read.
June 8, 2022
What a hilarious hilarious book. I'd recommend this, just for the entertainment factor. The book is an account of the author trotting the globe as a private tutor. Towards the end of the book, I was left disappointed. I wished for a better, a more profound ending or maybe something the author learnt from all the years of witness ridicule and privilege. And yet, I recommend you spend your weekend reading these funny funny pages!
February 17, 2022
“There’s not a line in the tutoring handbook about what you do when a naked Russian oligarch offers to spank you in his basement sauna.”
A warm and hilarious listen from Matt as he recounts his decade spent travelling the world and navigating the private roads of Mayfair tutoring the uber rich.
A warm and hilarious listen from Matt as he recounts his decade spent travelling the world and navigating the private roads of Mayfair tutoring the uber rich.
May 2, 2022
This was an entertaining read and I laughed out loud in places, but actually tutoring the super rich is too unpleasant for words, and it's no wonder the author could only stomach this job for 3 years.
What a world humans have created!
What a world humans have created!
May 17, 2022
Superbly written story spanning three years of the author's life tutoring, being a study buddy or just preparing for admission interviews, the kids of the superrich (mostly London but there is one Russian oligarch in play as well ... had to).
January 7, 2025
Hysterical and moving
A personal and original stranger in a strange land story - Knott gives a refreshing look at the super privileged and its many eccentricities and victims. I devoured it!
A personal and original stranger in a strange land story - Knott gives a refreshing look at the super privileged and its many eccentricities and victims. I devoured it!
March 7, 2022
Started very strong but fizzled out at the end
March 13, 2022
Great insight into the lives of the super rich. If sometimes very unsettling...
April 25, 2022
Gem of a book. Very funny.
June 4, 2022
Very funny! Yet incredibly upsetting there people exist.
August 27, 2022
A quick read, interesting and not at all as objectionable as one reviewer (on Amazon I think) found it. This author is no Adam Kay, Knott seems a nice guy.
September 28, 2022
Very silly and frilly and tongue-in-cheek, but also a very intriguing look at a totally extraordinary world that very few people really know a lot about.
November 29, 2022
A very easy and entertaining read. Until you remember these kids are all real and wow capitalism is just the worst. Icky.
December 28, 2022
An utterly fun yet useless account of private tutoring for uber rich kids. Why should anyone care about that?
March 26, 2023
boring. started well but lost steam and continuously deflated until it fell quite flat at the end. same trope as This Is Going To Hurt
March 31, 2023
A very easy read. Fun at times, shocking at times and also a bit sad at times. Would recommend.
May 24, 2023
Interesting insight into how the lives of the super rich and the way they see rules and obligations for the plebs.
October 6, 2023
A quick read, but entertaining and eye-opening.
November 4, 2023
Absolutely hilarious! This was so good I actually brought it as a gift for numerous people too.
November 21, 2023
Funny and like the observation angle. Also that it is focusing mainly on the tutoring experience
December 28, 2023
I enjoyed reading the first half of the book, then got a bit bored as it was quite samey.
December 2, 2024
Fun, entertaining and (for an Oxbridge grad) also relatable. Might be interesting to students of political and economic elites.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews