Teacher Teacher

If you like books about village life and reminiscences of the past when schools had character and teachers could afford a sense of humour then you will enjoy this book. If you enjoyed Gervaise Phinn you will love it!


It will appeal to anyone who knows and loves Yorkshire life at its most ordinary best and reading it will make you want to see more.

I think one reason why I particularly enjoyed this book is that it brought back fond memories of small village schools. I attended many Primary Schools because my father had many postings abroad. One school in Singapore was huge!

The last posting back to England was to a very small village school much like the one in the photo. Classes were mixed, Y1 and 2 in class 1, Y3 and 4 in class 2, and Y5 and 6 in the "Scholarship Class" with the elderly Headmistress.

Activities were old-fashioned but as children we felt very safe and secure. Every day had a routine and the older children were buddies to the younger ones. What it lacked in imagination, it made up for in tradition.

S
tan Coe mouthed a silent scream as he stared terrified in to the eyeless sockets of the skeleton's grinning skull.

"Who's that?" said Miss Twigg in amazement.
"It's Elvis," said Sue.
"No, I meant him," said Erica, pointing to a gibbering and very white faced Stan Coe.
Jo Maddisson grinned from ear to ear as I shambled forward to lift the skeleton from the terrified farmer. She turned to the wide eyed Erica Twigg.
"Erica, allow me to introduce you to our Vice-Chairman of Governors, Mr Stanley Coe," said Jo in her best toastmaster voice. Then she added in a stage whisper, "He's got nerves of steel!"

Jack Sheffield was Senior Lecturer in primary education at Bretton Hall, near Wakefield. He was born in Leeds in 1945 and had a working class background.


He worked on building sites as a "pitch boy" (carrying boiling tar up ladders in buckets to mend roofs) before completing teacher training at St John's College in York. He worked in Keighley as a teacher and played rugby for Wharfedale RUFC before becoming a Head Teacher in a rural Yorkshire School....

T
eacher, Teacher! is wonderful in its portrayal of Yorkshire character and grit and of course dialect, some of it of the colourful variety. Through its pages we meet many intriguing characters and learn to love them all:

Heathcliffe and Terry, the little boys who teach the school to swear, Ruby the larger than life caretaker cleaning happily as she sings Edelweiss, her diminutive husband Ronnie and Genghis Khan the pigeon, Miss Barrington-Huntley and her ill-fated hat, the beautiful advisory teacher Beth Henderson, the pompous and obstructive Vice-Chairman of Governors, Stan Coe, Vera the secretary and organiser, Elvis the skeleton, Sue Phillips, the cheerful nurse, Erica Twigg the student teacher, Ping the Vietnamese refugee who becomes best reader and poet in the school, Deke Ramsbottom, the singing cowboy.... Characters are sketched to be appealing even at their worst, and certainly loveable at best!