What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I was recently being rather nosey and reading an ebook over a lady's shoulder on the book and now I'm trying to find the book and failing miserably.

It featured a poor boy going to a boarding school because he was to join the choir. He was very ostracised because he had no table manners and his Dad might have been in prison. A prefect was bullying him in the dorm on a night and beating him with a slipper so he ran away. He went to an old man nearby (might have been a dockyard) but he went back to the school.

He had 2 close friends and went to the house of one of them for his birthday. It was all very posh with cucumber sandwiches and family portraits. One of the boys went by his surname because he had a ridiculous first name.

It was set in England, possibly northern England as I feel they mentioned York or Ripon at one point. Maybe late 1800s/early 1900s.

That's as much as a I read, helpfully forgetting all the character names, and googling has failed me so far.

Alyson wrote: "I was recently being rather nosey and reading an ebook over a lady's shoulder on the book and now I'm trying to find the book and failing miserably.

It featured a poor boy going to a boarding scho..."

Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles #1)
by Jeffrey Archer

Yes that's it! Thank you so much.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer for Kajehas' find.