You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 44.201.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪ST47‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a web host's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and they should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 23:54, 31 July 2024.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪AntiCompositeNumber‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: Visit the FAQ if you are affected .
- Start of block: 13:55, 18 August 2022
- Expiry of block: 13:55, 18 April 2025
Your current IP address is 44.201.219.156. The blocked range is 44.201.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Use dmy dates|date=April 2022))
((more citations needed|date=August 2015))

((Infobox book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name          = What I Was
| image         = WhatIWas-MegRosoff.jpg
| caption = First edition cover
| author        = [[Meg Rosoff]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Young adult literature|Young adult]]
| publisher     = [[Puffin Books|Puffin]]
| pub_date      = 30 August 2007
| pages         = 208 pp
| isbn          = 978-0-14-138343-9
| congress= PZ7.R719563 Wg 2007
| oclc= 183143568
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
))((Short description|2007 young adult novel by Meg Rosoff))
((Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature))

'''''What I Was''''' is a 2007 [[Young adult fiction|young adult novel]] by [[Meg Rosoff]], her third. The book was shortlisted for both the [[Costa Book Award|Costa Children's Book Award]] and the [[Carnegie Medal (literary award)|Carnegie Medal]].<ref>[http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/ The CILIP Carnegie Medal & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards]</ref>

==Plot introduction==
''What I Was'' tells the story of a secret friendship between two teenagers, one an unhappy [[Independent school (UK)|public school]]boy and the other living an independent and isolated life on the beach near the school. It is set on the [[East Anglia]]n coast in 1962.

==Plot summary==
The book is framed as the reminiscence of an old man recalling the year he discovered love. It is written as a [[first-person narrative]].
 
The novel opens with the protagonist, Hilary, a sixteen-year-old boy arriving at a grim East Anglian [[boarding school]] in 1962 after being twice [[Expulsion (academia)|expelled]] from previous institutions. He has no interest in study, no aptitude for sports and a great dislike of both pupils and teachers. He compares the school to a prison and finds life there unbearable.

While slacking on a school [[Cross country running|cross-country run]], he meets Finn, who lives alone in a beachside shack and sustains himself by fishing and working at the market. Hilary thinks Finn has an ideal life, and admires and envies him. He begins to visit the silent, enigmatic boy, and they are able to spend some afternoons together. He lies to his parents and the school so that he can stay at the shack during the Easter holidays.

On one visit to Finn, Hilary realizes his friend is ill, and suspects he may have given the other boy [[glandular fever]], which had spread through the school several weeks before. He tries to look after Finn himself but after a while becomes frightened and calls the emergency services. Finn runs away from the shack but Hilary later finds him in hospital.

Both schoolboys and adults misunderstand the innocent nature of their friendship, particularly when it is discovered that Finn is only fourteen, two years younger than Hilary, and is actually a girl, biologically. He leaves the school and does not see Finn again for many years. Eventually he returns to the coast, stays in Finn's by then abandoned shack, and realizes his dream of "becoming" Finn.

==References to history and geography==
There are frequent references to the [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]], the period being taught at the school. The teacher stresses the battles and the brutality, which appeal to most of his students, but Finn's primitive life at the hut represents the austere self-sufficiency of the period, which appeals to Hilary.

The sinking of England's eastern [[Coastline of the United Kingdom|coastline]] is also often mentioned. The sunken city and Roman fort are the focus of a sailing expedition in the earlier part of the book. Later in the same year, Finn's shack becomes flooded. In the closing chapter, set in the mid-21st century, the old man's boat passes over the school, now completely consumed by the rising sea.

== Translations ==

* ((Lang-nl|Wat ik was)). Translated by Jenny de Jonge. Antwerp: Moon. 2008. ((ISBN|9789048800230)). 
* ((Lang-fr|Ce que j'étais)). Translated by Luc Rigoureau. Vanves: Hachette. 2008. ((ISBN|9782012016873)). 
* ((Lang-de|Damals, das Meer|lit=Back Then, the Sea)). Translated by Brigitte Jakobeit. Hamburg: Carlsen. 2009. ((ISBN|9783551581969)).
* ((Lang-ru|Каким я был|translit=Kakim ya byl)). Translated by Olga Bukhina and Galina Gimon. Moscow: Belaya vorona. 2018. ((ISBN|9785001140399)).

==References==
((Reflist))

((Authority control))

[[Category:2007 British novels]]
[[Category:British young adult novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in England]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1962]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1960s]]
[[Category:Puffin Books books]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

What I Was (edit)
Template:Abbr (view source) (protected)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Both (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:DMCA (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Dated maintenance category (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Dated maintenance category (articles) (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:FULLROOTPAGENAME (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:ISBN (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:ISBNT (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Infobox book (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Lang-de (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Lang-fr (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Lang-nl (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Lang-ru (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Longitem (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:More citations needed (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ns has subpages (view source) (protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Portal (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Template other (view source) (protected)
Template:Use dmy dates (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Wikidata image (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno-no (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno-yes (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Authority control/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Check isxn (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:EditAtWikidata (view source) (protected)
Module:Exponential search (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/links (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:InfoboxImage (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Italic title (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/ISO 639 synonyms (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana languages (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana regions (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana suppressed scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana variants (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Ns has subpages (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:Portal (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal/images/aliases (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal/images/c (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Portal/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:TableTools (view source) (protected)
Module:Template wrapper (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unicode data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unicode data/scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Wikidata (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to What I Was.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_I_Was"