Thursday 16 May 2013

Read in 2013 - 14: Teacher, Teacher!

The very first book I finished reading this year was the fourth instalment of the "Teacher" series by Jack Sheffield, as described here. In that post, I mentioned that my mother-in-law had kept the first three books, intending to swap with me once we both would have read our half of the series. And so we did; she sent me the first three with my birthday parcel in March, and last night I finished reading the first book, "Teacher, Teacher!".


Of course, having read books 4, 5 and 6 before, I already knew where most of the story lines starting in the first book are going to lead; still, it was interesting to see how it all began for Jack Sheffield, how the characters were introduced and how he first met Beth Henderson.

In real life, the author was headteacher of two village schools in North Yorkshire during the 1970s and 80s, and I think it shows in his books that everything is based on personal experience. In an interview, Jack Sheffield was asked about how much his characters are based on real life people. He states that (obviously, apart from himself) there is only one person who recognized herself in the books and that he has been extremely careful with all the other characters, merging each one of them from several real people he'd met throughout his professional life.

A great deal of the charm of this series stems from it describing a time most of us remember quite well, and rather fondly. The 1970s and 80s were my childhood and youth; in 1977, when the book begins, I was nine years old. And although I never went to a village school but grew up in a town of almost 90.000 inhabitants, I am familiar with a lot of the places mentioned in the book; I spend time in Ripon with my family every year and have been to York, Harrogate, Leeds etc. The oldest of the school children and their teachers go on a summer holiday camp together, visiting Brimham Rocks - I went there two or three years ago and wrote about it here.

There were a few words I had not come across before, such as cagoules, and although I had a pretty good idea of what a Roneo Spirit Duplicator was, I went to look it up and found this picture somewhere on the internet:

Sally filled the Roneo Spirit Duplicator with fluid, took a metal-tipped stylus pen, selected a smooth white master sheet, put a blue sheet of carbon paper underneath and began to print neatly. When she had completed the list, she attached the master sheet to the cylindrical drum, loaded the tray with white paper and turned the handle one hundred times. [She] dreamed of having a photocopier in school like the one at her husband's office but, deep down, she knew they would always be too expensive for primary schools.
Something else I looked up was "winceyette": Ruby, the caretaker, gets a cotton winceyette nightdress as a present on Mother's Day from her children. I was close in imagining the nightie a bit like this:

During the children's summer holiday camp, they eat parkin - I had not known it before, but this is what it looks like:



There is a lot of such detail bringing the times and places to life. I am looking forward to the 2nd book, but my next read is going to be non-fiction.

17 comments:

  1. This sounds so good! I love your photos to illustrate the words that were new to you.

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    1. Thank you, Nan! Well, while I was doing the research for my review, I thought, why not posting the pictures, seeing that I've found them anyway!

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  2. When I first started teaching and years beyond, we used a ditto machine like this. When I made a mistake typing out a test or other school work on the carbon paper, I often made mistakes. Then I'd start over. :( Then...using the ditto machine, my fingers would end up purple. The kids liked smelling the papers when they got them because the ink sent off a strong odor. I was so thrilled with computers and copy machines came along!
    I love that a teacher is writing books, a series, no less!

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    1. From my own school days, I remember the purplish papers we got from our teachers very well! Also, when photocopying finally was available at the school library, the quality of the paper and the copies was quite different from what we are used to now.
      You'd probably enjoy these books a lot, Nonnie, on a different level from myself.

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  3. Oh, I remember the machine that you speak of, but we called it a mimeograph machine in America. (I just looked it up, invented by Thomas Edison, the genius!!)
    I remember the teacher having those purple tinged sheets of paper and she would start to say, "I'm going to pass out these papers..." but being Southern, she would pause and when she said "I'm going to pass out..." some boy would always say, "Oh, someone catch her, she's going to pass out!".
    Of course, you know it made me laugh every time!! HA!
    I think the book sounds interesting even though fiction is not what I usually go for...and your the next book you read will be non-fiction? YAY!! :-)

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    1. A lot in these books is non-fictional, Kay; it's almost an autobiography and sprinkled with many many facts, therefore I think you'd like them, too.
      Yes, I've already started on my next read. I was approached via my blog to review a book about craving written by an addictionologist, and I didn't say no :-)

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  4. I read this book when you first remembered the series. I think I have another in my tbr pile...They are light but heartwarming and I thank you for letting me know about them, Meike!

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    1. You are welcome, Kristi! That is exactly how I feel about them, light but heartwarming.

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  5. Forgot to add that I grew up with various duplicating machines in our schools, the most modern was probably the mimeograph. Wincy was a material I'd read of in the Anne of Green Gables books, I think, but Winceyette I have never seen.

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    1. When I was doing research on the "Roneo Duplicator" before writing this review, I came across the mimeograph several times, too.

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  6. I went to school in New York in the early 60s and 70s. I remember being shocked when at lunch they would serve us both a small carton of milk and a glass of orange juice. In Sicily it was unthinkable to drink milk and juice at the same time...actually at that time no one drank juice in Sicily, we just ate the oranges. About Firmoo, I think you can accept because it's not that you're going to earn anything through it. My blog is also non commercial...I don't earn from it and I don't get paid for any publicity I do...but I accepted Firmoo because I like their glasses and they send two pairs free in exchange of a post. I've put two posts since they were so kind as to send me two pairs free. Sometimes I am approached by Italian food companies, they send me several of their products, and all I have to do is cook something with one of their products and put the picture on the blog. In fact that reminds me that last week I received several bottles of Pomì sauce and peeled tomatoes and I'm supposed to make a post. I can't think of what to make with tomato sauce, I don't want to just make spaghetti and meatballs. Have a nice Sunday!

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    1. Thank you for explaining a bit more about Firmoo, Francesca!
      As for the tomato sauce... hmm... there's plenty you could make with it, even something as simple as bruschette... or how about couscous with a lovely spicy sauce!
      Milk and juice together does not sound very appealing to me, either.

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  7. Like Kay G., we also call them mimeograph machines! We loved the smell too! Being a teacher I'm going to have to check out that series of books thanks for the tip! Maybe it will be my summer read, after I finish reading "Dearie" -which is about Julia Child by Bob Spitz. This book is laugh out loud funny at times! Julia was a real hoot in her day, Make that all of her days, and years, all 91 of them!!!

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    1. I can imagine that this series is a particularly interesting and entertaining read for everyone who has been in the same field of work, Mary, so I am sure you would quite enjoy it. There are bits of Yorkshire dialect thrown in which you probably can't understand so well, but there's not too much of that.

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  8. I've read a number of books by former teachers (one UK and one New Zealand) and they were excellent. I have Jack Sheffield's collection (as a result of a previous post of yours) but have yet to start on them.

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  9. I should have added that I sent for them from Amazon UK when I was in NZ . They were delivered to Scotland of course and I suggested that my friend Pat (who opens all my mail and so on whilst I'm in NZ) should open the parcel and read them. She enjoyed them thoroughly.

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    1. That's good to know, Graham! Yes, I remember you commenting on one of my other reviews on a Jack-Sheffield-book that you intended to order the collection.

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