I've been taking full advantage of having spare time up my sleeve this Christmas, by reading some marvellous vintage / vintage-inspired books, the first of which was Class by Jane Beaton. It was recommended to me quite a few months ago by my gorgeous friend Keris and I am SO glad to finally have read it! (Incidentally, Keris' first novel, Della Says: OMG!
Class centres on Maggie Adair, a Scottish teacher used to rough-and-tumble public schools, who takes a job at a posh boarding school in the south of England. The story also intertwines a number of 'voices' of other students and teachers at the school, so that you get multiple viewpoints and plots linking in with Maggie's own tale. Sometimes this kind of storyline creates problems, but Jane Beaton handled it beautifully.
It's a story about challenges, fitting in, love, hidden secrets... a grown-up and modern tale, reminiscent of Malory Towers and all those other fabulous boarding school tales I devoured as a youngster (who am I kidding - I still devour them!).
I absolutely loved this book - stayed up way past my bedtime just so I could finish it! If you loved (or love) classic boarding school tales, I suspect you'll thoroughly enjoy this grown-up twist. If you're keen, it's available from Amazon (Class: The Secret Diary of a Teacher in Turmoil) and you can preorder the second book in the series (Rules: Are Made to Be Broken - Further Adventures of a Teacher in Turmoil) as well! Personally, I can't wait!
I think I definitely need to make sure this is on my list for 2010 - I've wanted to read it for a while and not got round to it.
Posted by: Jenni | December 30, 2009 at 03:02 AM
Jenni, definitely do - and make sure to let me know what you think! :)
Posted by: Erin Le Clerc | December 30, 2009 at 10:01 AM