I found my solution - a solution - quite by accident. One boy was fond of twisting other kids' arms, including mine, one day I caught him off guard and twisted his. He tried to pull away, I held on and dislocated his shoulder. He told everyone it was an accident - the rule was, you didn't 'sprag' on anyone, even your worst enemy - but he left me alone after that.

Then the following terms I lost it with another bully and smacked his head into a brick wall. He bled like a stuck pig and had a mild concussion. The incdent was seen. I was caned and given a lecture on how I could have killed him. My mother hit me - not for what I'd done to the boy, but for getting caned which was 'showing her up' - but she'd have hit me anyway, it was what she did. My dad saw no problem with what I'd done, it served the other kid right, he said. But all bullying stopped.

That was the answer, and it served me throughout school life and, applied more subtly, at work as well.

Pushing, shoving, thumping are all about exerting dominance. But if you show them that you're prepared to really hurt or injure them, they call you a 'mad bastard' and let you alone. That's what I told my kids - draw blood the first time, and there won't be a second!

You should have clawed someones' eyes, or bitten them hard enough to make them bleed. Unfotruanltey, you didn't have my temper (or psychopathic tendencies).