The Other Side of the Dale

Phinn, Gervase

4.06

1,939 ratings by Goodreads

9780141800165: The Other Side of the Dale

ISBN 10: 014180016X ISBN 13: 9780141800165

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Gervase Phinn is offered the post of County Inspector of Schools in North Yorkshire. As he reveals in this warm and wonderfully humorous account, his first year was quite an educational experience. He learns to appreciate the countryside and meets some larger than life characters, from lords, farmers, teachers, priests and caretakers to a host of endearing and disarming children who know exactly how to speak their mind, often in surprising - and very entertaining - ways!

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Product Description:

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Review:

Amusing and serendipitous memories of Gervase Phinn's first year as County Inspector of Schools in North Yorkshire. The children he meets seem to be little adults, full of the language and prudence of their mostly land-worker parents; able to hold their own on the finer points of animal husbandry and farm management. "Don't yer know yer sheep then?" asks a serious little boy, aged six, whose reading aloud is perfect but whose interest is more in identifying the breed of sheep in the accompanying illustration, which leads to a serious classroom discussion.

Gervase Phinn meets head teachers, checks school curriculums, selects an unpopular winner in a poetry competition, and gains confidence of the shyest and the most stubborn with innate diplomacy. He graciously accepts endless inaccuracies in the spelling and pronunciation of his name--"he's called Mr Grim and he's a spectre"--becomes much sought-after and admired by the county's matrons, and his heart is set a'flutter by a pretty, unmarried headmistress with whom he longs to be more intimately acquainted.

A good-natured, entertaining storyteller obviously committed to his calling, Mr Phinn's occasional inaccuracy in rendition in no way detracts from his warm and enjoyable reading. --Running time approx 3 hours --Lynn Took

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