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. ( )

Very readable, but probably quite embellished ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

(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. ( )