The Heart of the Dales – Gervase Phinn

I got some very strange looks on the train to work this morning and it’s all Gervase Phinn’s fault! Mr C picked up a copy of his latest book for me last weekend when he found it in a 3 for 2 offer and it is quite simply one of the most fantastic things I’ve ever read!

I’m still reading The Heart of the Dales but I just couldn’t wait to share it’s hilarious brilliance with others.

Gervase Phinn is a Yorkshire Dales school inspector, and despite what some may consider as a dreary sounding job, he has so many fantastic tales to tell. This is the fifth of his books about life as a school inspector traveling round various Dales schools and to say that he is a born storyteller is an understatement.

I first came across Phinn when he presented the prizes at a school event and spoke about his experiences. He told us about some of the amazing things that children he has met come out with and the audience hung on his every word. In his books the children’s directness, often combined with a heavy Yorkshire accent, is captured so perfectly on the page that you can’t help but smile or laugh out load in some cases (like I did on the train to work this morning!) The observations he’s made of the other characters he meets are also fantastically described.

If you want a book that makes real life jump off the page, makes you smile and captures the brilliance of children then please do read this or one of his others. Pure brilliance!