Up and Down in the Dales

Escape to the country with Gervase Phinn''s heartwarming tales of life as a school inspector in Yorkshire

''Gervase Phinn''s memoirs have made him a hero in school staff-rooms'' Daily Telegraph
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What''s your name? I asked the child.
''Tequila,'' she replied. I''m named after a drink.''
''Tequila Sunrise,'' I murmured.
''No,'' pouted the child. ''Tequila Braithwaite.''

Now in his fourth year as an Inspector for English in the Yorkshire Dales, Gervase Phinn still relishes visiting the schools - whether an inner-city comprehensive fraught with difficulties or a small Dales Primary school where the main danger is one of closure. With endless good humour, he copes with the little surprises that occur round every corner.

Some things never change: Mrs Savage roars, Connie rants, and Gervase''s colleague in the office play verbal ping-pong. But all this can be put behind him each day when he retur