Miss Purdy's Class
2 journalers for this copy...
I believe this book was bought for me as a gift by my sister-in-law. It is a paperback in fairly good condition.
From the back cover:- In the New Year of 1936, Gwen Purdy, aged 21, leaves her home to become a schoolteacher in a poor area of Birmingham. Her early weeks are an eye-opener: at the school she faces a class of 52 children, some of whose homes are among Birmingham's very poorest. One of the teachers, the elderly Lily Drysdale, proves an inspiration, and Gwen begins to understand the appalling hardships endured by the children as she is drawn into their lives.
Joey Phillips, 8 years old, and man of the house looks after his dying mother then disappears.
Through another pupil Lucy Fernandez Gwen meets her brother Daniel, falls in love with him and is quickly engaged in his battle to win rights for the working classes. But Daniel has secrets that he doesn't want to face up to .........
REVIEW: Before page 100 of this book I was a little bored and able to guess at the conclusion of the story for Miss Purdy (though I didn't get it quite right). I did enjoy the story which got more compelling as it went along. I did get a little bogged down in all the politics of the communist revolution. I think the language used by some of the characters was not correct for the time in which it was set. For example an 8 year old boy continually using the F word in the 1930's and a vicar starting an ordinary sentence with "Oh God" or saying "For God's sake" and "what the hell". Also Christie, an ex-priest used lots of bad language.
I'm not sure if Gwen would have returned to live with a landlady who couldn't cook a decent meal and I was amazed at her strength when pushing a full-grown man in a wheelchair up a Welsh mountain. (No mention was made of how she averted disaster either, when getting him down again!)
There were two big coincidences towards the end of the book when Daniel meets up with 2 other characters on separate occasions which were a little too unlikely to be true. Having said all the above it was still quite a good story but I'm not sure if I will be looking for any more by the same author.
From the back cover:- In the New Year of 1936, Gwen Purdy, aged 21, leaves her home to become a schoolteacher in a poor area of Birmingham. Her early weeks are an eye-opener: at the school she faces a class of 52 children, some of whose homes are among Birmingham's very poorest. One of the teachers, the elderly Lily Drysdale, proves an inspiration, and Gwen begins to understand the appalling hardships endured by the children as she is drawn into their lives.
Joey Phillips, 8 years old, and man of the house looks after his dying mother then disappears.
Through another pupil Lucy Fernandez Gwen meets her brother Daniel, falls in love with him and is quickly engaged in his battle to win rights for the working classes. But Daniel has secrets that he doesn't want to face up to .........
REVIEW: Before page 100 of this book I was a little bored and able to guess at the conclusion of the story for Miss Purdy (though I didn't get it quite right). I did enjoy the story which got more compelling as it went along. I did get a little bogged down in all the politics of the communist revolution. I think the language used by some of the characters was not correct for the time in which it was set. For example an 8 year old boy continually using the F word in the 1930's and a vicar starting an ordinary sentence with "Oh God" or saying "For God's sake" and "what the hell". Also Christie, an ex-priest used lots of bad language.
I'm not sure if Gwen would have returned to live with a landlady who couldn't cook a decent meal and I was amazed at her strength when pushing a full-grown man in a wheelchair up a Welsh mountain. (No mention was made of how she averted disaster either, when getting him down again!)
There were two big coincidences towards the end of the book when Daniel meets up with 2 other characters on separate occasions which were a little too unlikely to be true. Having said all the above it was still quite a good story but I'm not sure if I will be looking for any more by the same author.
Journal Entry 2 by 
daffodil-2
at King of Hearts in Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom on Thursday, June 14, 2012
daffodil-2 at King of Hearts in Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom on Thursday, June 14, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (6/16/2012 UTC) at King of Hearts in Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
This book will be taken to the meetup at the King of Hearts, Magdalen St., Norwich.
To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, keep it, pass to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.
I already have books travelling in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the USA, Madeira, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Turkey, the Canary Islands, France, the Channel Islands, Wales and all over the UK.
To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, keep it, pass to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.
I already have books travelling in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the USA, Madeira, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Turkey, the Canary Islands, France, the Channel Islands, Wales and all over the UK.
Picked up at bookcrossing get-together - will read soon
