Knowledge Waits
James Goddard, 2015
Zitebooks.com
164 pp.
ASIN: B00USKXA54
Summary
This novel takes a satirical look at education in the UK. It is set in a nameless private school for boys and is largely narrated by the disaffected staff of the school, most of whom are heartily sick of their jobs and their lives. It does, however, also touch upon the sadder and more poignant aspects of their lives.
The climax of the novel is a staff meeting to launch yet another new initiative; this meeting is to be chaired by the hapless Malcolm Davies who quite rightly fears the reactions of such staff members as the foul-mouthed Gerry McMullen and the irascible and pedantic Mike Redfern.
Author Bio
• Birth—15 January 1955
• Where—Franham, Surrey, UK
• Education—M.A., Oxford Brookes
• Currently—Swindon, Wiltshire
Having taught in the UK for over thirty years James Goddard has written an educational comedy which draws heavily on much of what he perceives as wrong with education in England today. This is his first novel but it will not be his last.
James currently teaches part-time in a college of further education but also has much experience as a senior examiner at Advanced level; he has also run and spoken at several national training courses for teachers and students.
Despite the creeping years he still plays football at least twice a week and regularly runs half marathons. (From the author.)
For more on the author, visit Zitebooks.
Follow "Jim" on Facebook (where you'll see him stroking a tiger).
Book Reviews
The focus is firmly on the staff and they leap from the page not merely as human beings but as a deftly drawn collection of personality defects and neuroses.... Although it can be classified as a school story, this is no Goodbye Mr Chips. There is no saccharine sentimentality and barely a moment of teachers being the inspiring leaders the recruitment ads promise they'll become.... This book is well worth the price of admission.
Barrie Hudson - Swindon Advertiser
Discussion Questions
1. Who do you think are the real villains of this novel?
2. Did you sympathise at all with any of the characters?
3. Does Malcolm Davies deserve any sympathy?
4. In what ways does the novel achieve its comic effects?
5. Is the author too cynical/bitter in what he says about education?
6. Should there perhaps be greater focus on the school's pupils?
7. Are you bothered that there are so few female vopices in the novel?
8. Is the shift from multi-first person narrators to a third person narrator at the end a successful one?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)