Changes

Normally, I shy away from later books in a series unless I've read the earlier ones. It's not always fair on an author and sometimes it's not ''that'' much fun for the reader either, but ''Educating Jack'' is an exception. It might take you a few pages to work out who is who or get a sequence of earlier events straight, but you'll not feel it to be a problem. Jack Sheffield is not just the author, he's also the main character in the book and the story is based - loosely - on his time as a headmaster in similar schools in North Yorkshire. The stories he tells have a real ring of truth about them - he understands children and the way they think. I laughed out loud on several occasions and once - when the wedding ceremony was explained - I had tears running down my face and I still don't know whether I was laughing or crying.

There's a wonderful snapshot of a particular part of North Yorkshire as it was some thirty years ago. Life was simpler and perhaps kinder and lived in a particularly beautiful part of the country - on the edge of Hambleton Hills. Jack Sheffield lives in York and Hampshire now. As a Yorkshireman I can't imagine what he's doing in Hampshire, unless, like [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Alan Titchmarsh|Alan Titchmarsh]] he's doing missionary work.