Gervase PhinnRezensionen

A light, entertaining read, perfect for the holiday suitcase. Gervase Phinn takes on the role of school inspector, and spends much of his working life travelling round the Dales, meeting a range of entertaining characters and engaging pupils. A sweetly nostalgic book bringing rural Yorkshire life alive in a way that's reminiscent of James Herriot's stories.

Subject headings:
Cats
Pets

Very readable, but probably quite embellished½

Reads as a series of notes from the author’s personal experiences, interesting enough but not massively engrossing or captivating hence it took me awhile to get through. A few smiles but not especially funny and the conversations written in dialect are hard to decipher at times. I have a pretty neutral feeling over this book, it’s a time passer but not a page turner, probably most enjoyable if you have a personal connection with school life and/or the Yorkshire dales.

Memories can be good for the soul and Gervase Phinn has lots to share! Writing in his easy, cheery style Mr Phinn had me smiling at his anecdotes from family life, school days and Christmas - pure indulgence.

In the village of Risingdale a new arrival is causing a stir. Amanda Stanhope is a semi-famous artist and her son, Leo, is joining the village school. For Tom Dwyer this new arrival is possibly a cure for his broken heart. The local squire is struggling with his feelings for his wife and his mistress and the local farmers and their families are as ever.
Phinn has a comfortable niche that he never strays away from - heartwarming tales, a cast of characters that seem caricatures and a love of the Yorkshire Dales - it has served him well and will continue to do so. This book is no exception, the stories are feather light and there is lots of repetition of descriptions yet it works so well. This is the sort of book I like to read just for the way that it requires no effort and is gently amusing, Phinn is the Herriott of education!

Absolutely charming book, which I found in a charity shop in Yorkshire. I had no idea that a book about a school inspector could be so interesting or insightful. The style reminded me of Bill Bryson.

Another in this small edition set and as always, Gervase manages to make me smile.

If you want to read a little book that you can pick up and put down, that will make you laugh, make you nod knowingly to yourself then read this one! Gervase always manages to make the ordinary, everyday things in life sound special, funny, poignant and loveable. If we humans and our little humans weren't exactly as we are, Mr. Phinn would not have been such a successful author, well maybe not :) Grandparents without grandchildren would be like bees without honey, one could not exist without the other yet together they create something that is ever so sweet!½

The second book in the Barton-In-The-Dale series. Elisabeth Devine is the head teacher of Barton School in the Yorkshire Dales. Having seen off the proposed closing of the school, there are now plans to merge the school with nearby Urebank School. The head teacher there, Mr Richardson, is very unpleasant, and both of them must interview for the position of head teacher. An entertaining cast of characters, from the village shopkeeper and font of all gossip, Elizabeth's difficult predecessor, children obsessed with sport, and another, Danny Stainthorp, who has been living with the village doctor since his grandfather passed, and whose long-lost grandmother has turned up to claim him. A heart-warming and humorous tale of village life.½

What a lovely trip down memory lane and the text is complemented with some wonderful photos. Growing up can be a tough gig but it’s also quite an adventure. When you’re just a kid life seems to be an endless game and these tales, mostly very short, are the personal memories from a variety of well known contributors. I found I was often smiling, if not at the text at the captivating photos. At the bottom of each page there is a quote, relevant to Childhood and the one I particularly liked was a Chinese Proverb - “Parents who are afraid to put their foot down will have children who step on their toes.” (page 128)
Nearly all these narratives have their roots in the English poor and working classes, yet having said that, when you see the names of the contributors, it just goes to prove that little children can and do make names for themselves and find great success in later life, despite or maybe it’s because of their humble beginnings!

(7/10) I was very pleasantly surprised by this, I went into it wondering why on Earth anyone would write a book about being a school inspector. As it happens the job is far more involved than I thought and it was written so well I couldn't help but enjoy it.

It had me in absolute stitches when he was explaining the various pronunciations of his name he had come across and was a book full of great humour and warmth. I would definitely read the other books in this series.½

On the whole another enjoyable book by Gervase Phinn. Maybe because I've read most of what this author has written, I'm starting to read some of the same tales in different books. To be fair to the author, the double ups are probably some of the funniest recollections from his time as a school Inspector, and they still bring a smile to my eye. It's the retelling of the direct and very honest life observations said by the school children that are pure gold, I would love to meet some of these kids, who are as blunt as a dull knife! The story of the surprising individualist Kyle, aged 10 and the new boy at school, tore at my heartstrings. If you want a bit of light cheerful reading that will give you more than a few good chuckles, have a read.

Gervase Phinn is one of my favourite authors for when I want something light and easy to read, something that will make me laugh. I've read all of The Dales series of books and thoroughly enjoyed them. While I found this autobiographically work interesting and just as engaging, it didn't seem to flow very smoothly, it felt disjointed. There's some repetition, where he recounts incidents from previous works but in spite of that, I enjoyed hearing anecdotes from his personal life. For me, 'Out of The Woods but not Over The Hill' felt like a book Mr. Phinn had to write, rather than one that flowed easily from his pen.½

A lovely quick read. The story was sad and also lovely at times but very interesting and thought provoking. In this short book, the characters develop nicely and you get to know and love father McKenzie.

Much of the book contains stories or anecdotes that have already been used in some of the author’s other books, somewhat embellished, and few of them were memorable enough for me to have remembered them. The only one that felt familiar was the opening story about a hapless Vicar trying to tell the nativity story to a class of small and enthusiastic children. The punch-line is unfortunately foreshadowed in the title of the book, but it was still a pleasant read.

Other stories, each one only a few pages long, detail events in the Christmas period, or describe classroom nativity plays, where mistakes, misunderstandings and general cuteness feature prominently. I was mildly amused, and appreciated the glimpses into environments which are mostly unfamiliar to me.

It's a quick read; at less than 150 pages I completed it in about an hour, and it fulfilled my requirement of being light and entertaining.

Recommended in a low-key way if you can pick it up inexpensively, and like reading anecdotes about small children at Christmas.½

A humorous and pleasant book that like all Gervase Phinn books leave you laughing out loud at homes, and not able to help yourself! However, I prefer his Dales series as I felt this book was too bitty, whereas The Dales series book tell a story and have more flow. One or two scenes from The Dales series ended up in these memoirs. Certainly worth a read.

Great fun - I picked it up thinking it was his memoirs of being a school inspector which I had heard and enjoyed on the radio. Once I realised it's actually a novel, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters who are all well drawn. There are laugh-out loud moments too. As this is the third in the series I will look forward to reading the first two.

I was very lucky to meet Gervase Phinn at an education conference, he was giving a talk and then chatting to people after. He read some of his own work and was very entertaining. Since meeting him I then went on to read a number of his books which I really enjoyed.

He has a fantastic imagination and really brings the story to life.

Gervase Phinn never fails to make me smile and laugh and nod my head knowingly. I have read all his books. I have loved all his books. Teacher, School Inspector, Public Speaker, Author, Poet and Patron of many charities for children, turns the story on himself in this book and it's told with all the humour and honesty of his tales about the straight talking Yorkshire schoolchildren of his previous books. Mr. Phinn is obviously one of those brilliant people who were BORN to teach, born to enlighten and encourage, born to tell stories, to write stories and to make people laugh and feel good about themselves. I hope the next book isn't too far away.

Gervase Phinn, who narrates this book, is appointed School Inspector for English in the Yorkshire Dales. He recounts his initial interviews and settling-in period, and several incidents as he travels around visiting local schools.

Well-written with a humorous eye for detail, and I found each chapter enjoyable. However it felt somehow like collected short stories rather than a book in its own right - not necessarily a problem, but it made it rather less enjoyable than the James Herriot books with which it's been compared.

I enjoyed this more than the first in the series. Gervase is now well-established as a school inspector, the anecdotes flow well, and there's a good sense of getting to know the main characters well. Pleasant light reading.

Third in Gervase Phinn's autobiographical accounts of life as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales. Very enjoyable with some humour and good characterisation. The series seems to improve with each book so far.

Who Am I? is a fun book. There is a bit of irony within the plot of this book because the Chameleon is the main character who is asking everyone who he is, while also changing colors to match the animal he is talking to. I found this element of creative writing to be most entertaining. In addition, the illustration are great! The many different animals that the Chameleon runs into, are all illustrated with neat colors and facial expressions. Furthermore, there is an element of informational text within this book. With each passing animal that the Chameleon approaches, the animal presents their name and a fact about themselves which happens to be true of that particular animal in real life. For example, the cheetah says that he is the fastest land animal on earth! Who Am I? is informative while engaging the reader with neat elements of writing and illustrations.

se mitt blogginlägg:
http://procaptulectoris.blogspot.se/2010/04/en-tunn-liten-bok.html