Blitz survivor, ex-evacuee, veteran of five primary schools, and denizen of a typical London suburb, Berwick Coates won a scholarship to a grammar school in 1940. All he knew about was German aircraft recognition, cricket, and Hollywood films. During the following years, he had to deal with new surroundings, new subjects, new friends, V-2 flying bombs, post-war austerity, adolescence, and rampant nationalization. Fortunately, he was taught by some memorable teachers, some of whom helped to shape his later life and teaching career. Within this account of life at a grammar school in the 1940s, which will resonate with anyone who followed a similar educational path, he interweaves the historical context of this turbulent decade, which saw not only the devastation and the "we're-all-in-this-together" spirit of the Second World War, but also the hardships faced by a country rebuilding itself afterwards.

Starkeye & Co: Life at a Grammar School in the 1940s

Biographies & Memoirs

Coates, Berwick

Historical

The History Press

1095 
A city in the grip of crusade fever 
Innkeeper Albert dies - minstrel Bertrand asks why 
On Tuesday, 27th November, 1095, in Clermont, France, Pope Urban II made one of the most important speeches in history: he preached the First Crusade, and unleashed madness. Clermont had been pushed to the extreme of suffering by recent flood, famine, drought, and pestilence. Urban's speech drove it over the edge. In the midst of the frenzy, innkeeper Albert is found dead. Mayor Arnaud, desperate, asks his friend, the minstrel Bertrand de Montclos, to look into it, in an effort to stop the madness spreading...

Deus Le Volt

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Paragon Publishing

Sam Browne's Schooldays

Woodfield Publishing

West Buckland

Ryelands Publishing

No two people see anything the same way. No two people see even something so familiar as Christmas the same way. It all depends on your point of view. These verses - honest, sad, dry, touching, happy, angry, funny, tragic, contented, smug, mischievous, complacent, wistful, cocky, baffled, fatalistic, grateful, sceptical - tell us how people feel when Christmas comes, or what they do, or how they manage. They tell it as they see it. The drawings tell it as you may see it. It will give all of us some food for thought. The author: Berwick Coates was educated at Kingston Grammar School, and studied History at Cambridge. Since then, he has been at various times an Army officer, writer, artist, lecturer, careers adviser, games coach, and teacher of History, English, Latin, and Swahili. He has published eight books. He is now the archivist at West Buckland School in Devon.

The Perfect Christmas Present

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

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