Reading Writing and Redemption

This is the best book since Harry Potter about going to school.

School is something we all have in common. And the great thing about Reading, Writing and Redemption by Andrew Stephen is that it's all true.

Anybody who went to school between the 1950s and the present day will love this candid and beautifully-written memoir of a man who has devoted all but the first four years of his life to education.

As its title suggests, this book is about education and redemption. The writer looks back on an eventful career that's taken him from pupil to student, teacher to head of department and, finally, to school governor.

As the son of a British serviceman, Andrew's early education took place in a bewildering variety of primary schools in England and Germany, followed by life as a boarder in a state grammar school, from which he was expelled - accused of a crime he did not commit - on the eve of his A Levels.

Today, he's a governor of that same school. That's one heck of a redemption.

Between expulsion and redemption, Andrew became a student teacher, took a university degree, taught English at inner-city comprehensive schools and eventually became a progressive head of department. It was a stellar career set against a backdrop of political change and unprecedented upheaval in the state education system.

It's a rollercoaster journey in which the author has learned as many lessons as the children he inspired. As a teacher, Andrew Stephen taught his pupils in the East Midlands to find their own voices and speak out. He certainly led by example and in this book pulls no punches about the flaws in both our education system and our political leaders.

Reading, Writing and Redemption is a fast-paced romp through our shared social history, with deft descriptions of the teachers and pupils he met along the way that will make you laugh out loud.

This book is unputdownable. Go to the top of the class, Mr Stephen!