Chesterton developed slowly throughout his childhood and adolescence; he was an undistinguished student, whose master described him at fifteen as "a great blunderer with much intelligence." Though he attended lectures in English literature at University College during his tenure at Slade, Chesterton received no formal training in the writing which was to become his life's work. From his earliest school days, however, he had shown great interest and considerable aptitude in debating. The formation of the Junior Debating Club at St. Paul's, a forum which constituted Chesterton's ideal model of friendship, confirmed his intimacy with several lifelong friends, including Lucian Oldershaw, who would later marry Chesterton's sister-in-law, and E. C. Bentley, who would join him in changing the face of the English detective story. Indeed all the most important relationships in Chesterton's life, including his childless marriage and his close attachments to children, seem to have been based on ideals of friendship.
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