Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94116 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Synopsis
"The Heart of the Dales" marks the welcome return of a much-loved cast of unforgettable characters. Awkward teachers, pompous school governors and fearsome lollipop ladies occasionally make Gervase Phinn's hectic job as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales more than difficult. But for Gervase, the focus, and challenge, remains the frankly spoken children. However, the new school year doesn't get off to the best start after a teacher intimates that Gervase has let him and his school down. So when he is called up in front of his new boss, the formidable Miss de la Mare, Gervase fears he is going to be in hot water. To add to his woes, he is given another 'little job' by the Chief Education Officer, which inevitably means liaising with the infuriating and interfering Mrs Savage - the bain of the inspectors' lives. Meanwhile, away from the pressure of school, Gervase's life with wife Christine and their new baby son, is blissful - until an assortment of noises in the attic start to disturb their nights...

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully Brilliant
This is a very welcome return to the Yorkshire Dales and the people - both young and old - who inhabit them. This book is imbued with the love, laughter, hardship, tears and honesty that his previous books have been filled with.

"Mester Phinn" is a very good story-teller and has an easy style about his writing. The love he has for the people and places he writes about is thee for all to see. The characters and characterisations are as colourful and fulsome as in his previous outings.

This book is a wonderful way to spend a pleasant few hours after a hard day at work, or just a good book to become lost in at any time of the day.

The ending has the feeling of the last in the series, although there are one or two 'loose ends' that could do with being tied up in (at least) one more book. I, for one, would be more than happy is another in the series was to come along in the not too distant future.

Finally . . . how about a TV series based on the series. If done properly and with due respect to the books, then it could be a sure-fire winner!!

Very much recommended - to young and old. Guaranteed to have you laughing and crying with the best of them. sometimes at the same time!

Disappointed
I've really enjoyed Gervase's four previous books on being a school inspector in the Dales. However, this one left me quite disappointed; perhaps the series has now come to its natural conclusion.

There doesn't seem to be much of a storyline, just some rather disjointed events. There is little character development; we don't really learn anything new about the people we've come to know and love so well in the previous books.

Even though I'm from up t'North, I found the Yorkshire dialect being used much too often; it just became irritating. Also many of the incidents appear too contrived and not plausible. There seems to be more fiction than fact in this account.

Time to give it a rest now Gervase.

Not Quite Up To Scratch
I have to confess that I was slightly disappointed with this, the latest of Gervase Phinn's books. I have always enjoyed his warm, humorous stories greatly, but found this one a little tired and lacking compared to previous efforts.

Apart from finding quite a lot of the stories rather smutty this time, many of them seemed rather forced too, with several anecdotes seeming to be derived more from email jokes that do the rounds than real life - such as the incident with the turpentine being thrown down the toilet, blowing up the hapless decorator who threw his cigarette into the bowl and was then dropped by the ambulance crew on hearing how the accident happened. I'm afraid too much of this just didn't ring true for me and I got the impression the author was slightly desperate and/or padding out the book somewhat.

I still enjoyed reading the book, as there were some real gems hidden away amongst the "doubtful", padded content. But when previous books have been packed full of such gems, creating a laugh-out-loud and unputdownable standard, this one fell rather short of that mark for me personally.