Is There a Pigeon in the Room?

My Life in Schools

Is There a Pigeon in the Room?
Cameron Wyllie
RRP:
NZ$ 41.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 36.32
Paperback
h234 x 156mm - 224pg
2 Jun 2022 UK
International import eta 10-19 days
9781780277738
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Is There a Pigeon in the Room? is a deeply personal book about Cameron Wyllie' s remarkable four-decade career in teaching. It' s a tapestry of anecdotes and reflections on topics like drugs, parenting and sex education, laced with stories about memorable individuals. What did he say to the Third Year after drinking too much gin with the Head? Who was Adolf? What happened to the horrible bus driver? While the intention is to make the reader laugh plenty, Cameron also deals with discipline, refugees, tragic events, his own status as a gay man and tells us the story of Tes, an Eritrean boy who inspired hundreds of young people with his love of education. Cameron taught over 8,000 students in his career. Having been once described as ' the place where Jean Brodie meets Kenneth Williams' the book also charts the surprising trajectory of a career which culminated in his appointment as Principal of George Heriot' s, one of Edinburgh' s most prestigious schools.
' An enlightening and excruciatingly honest look at what it' s really like to educate and prepare young people for their future. Packed full of hysterical anecdotes, colourful characters and told with such a lightness of touch - this is an earnest, laugh-out loud memoir' -- EMUN ELLIOTT (actor) ' Cameron Wyllie' s prose, like his teaching, is funny, warm, surprising and not quite like that offered by anyone else . . . one discovers Mr Wyllie' s most interesting virtue: his unerring eye for the truth' -- DAVID GREIG (playwright) ' A scrumptious selection box of a schoolteacher' s anecdotes, musings and erudite observations . . . his book has a warm heart, a dry wit and a resilient aftertaste. It touches on a universal and everlasting truth: that education is not really about subjects and exams after all . . . A delight' -- JANEY JONES (novelist children' s author)
Cameron Wyllie started teaching English at Daniel Stewart' s and Melville College in Edinburgh in 1980 and ended his career nearly forty years later as Principal of George Heriot' s School, the Sunday Times ' Scottish Independent School of the decade' (2021). He is now a writer and journalist and lives in Edinburgh with his partner, Kevin.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781780277738
Published: 2 Jun 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Birlinn
Publisher: Birlinn General
Format: Paperback
Height: 234mm
Width: 156mm
Pages: 224

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