SHORT TAKES : Errol Flynn’s Adolescent Angst Goes Up for Sale at Christie’s

Kissing and fisticuffs were part of Errol Flynn’s life even when the legendary Hollywood hero was a schoolboy.

London auction house Christie’s plans to offer a rare collection of six signed love letters next month that the film star penned from his London boarding school to a friend’s sister, Mary White.

“My dear Mary . . . I was jolly angry with your brother yesterday because he advertised to a lot of the third form that I had arranged to go out with you, of course I slapped their gobs (mouths),” the 13-year-old future swashbuckler wrote in 1922.

Three days later he wrote: “My dear Mary . . . You struck the right thing about those kisses, there is not much in them on paper, but they are all right when they are real, by Jove, I know, don’t you, I should think you would.”

Flynn, who died of a heart attack in 1959, wrote about the school in his autobiography, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways.” He said the two years he spent there were the most dismal of his life.

Carey Wallace of Christie’s said today: “I can’t imagine there are any earlier Flynn love letters. They give some fascinating insights into the frustrations of his youth.”

The letters, which are expected to fetch about $1,500, will be auctioned along with a pair of bowler hats that belonged to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and imitation diamonds owned by actress Mae West.