Summer term, 1956. For boys and girls, primary school days mean blackboards and chalk dust, pinafores and short trousers, satchels and skipping ropes.

For talented teacher Helen Mercer, returning to her home county of Yorkshire and working in a supply role, it’s a term of being sent wherever there’s a gap to fill, and getting to grips with idiosyncratic head teachers, eccentric colleagues and new classes of young children.

To each school, Helen brings warmth, creativity and a stubborn conviction that every child matters. But among the endearing, funny youngsters she meets, defiant Terry Smith tests her more than most. Can she reach the vulnerable boy she spies beneath the unruly behaviour?

As Helen settles back into Yorkshire life and even considers a new romance, she must decide which school needs her most, and where she can truly belong.

An evocative, entertaining and feel-good novel that celebrates those memorable early schooldays, from one of the UK’s most beloved storytellers.

Praise for Gervase Phinn:

'A worthy successor to James Herriott, and every bit as endearing' Alan Titchmarsh

'Hilarious and hair-raising' Sunday Times

'Colourful, funny and honest' Sunday Express

'A natural storyteller' The Times Educational Supplement