FICTION REVIEW: Little Village School - Gervase Phinn

Release Date: 07/07/11

SYNOPSIS:

She was wearing red shoes! With silver heels!

Elisabeth Devine causes quite a stir on her arrival in the village. No one can understand why the head of a big inner city school would want to come to sleepy little Barton-in-the-Dale, to a primary with more problems than school dinners.

And that's not even counting the challenges the mysterious Elisabeth herself will face: a bitter former head teacher, a grumpy caretaker and a duplicitous chair of governors, to name but a few.

Then there's the gossip. After all, a woman who would wear red shoes to an interview is obviously capable of anything . . .

Warm, funny and poignant, Gervase Phinn's first novel for adults creates a fictional world that's as real as can be. It will delight all his fans, and win him many more.


REVIEW:

As a fan of Gervase’s autobiographies I always like to see if an author can tackle a different genre, not because I don’t think that they can but because I feel that with the experience that he’s had that he would do well to work with the readers emotional side throughout a new medium.

What he manages with this title is a book that plays right across the emotional spectrum for the reader reducing them at times to tears of sadness and at others to tears of joy. It’s wonderfully written and whilst the characters did feel a little bit too clichéd at times they worked wonderfully well for the story presented within. All in, for me, this is a cracking story and one that relies on not only plot but on emotion and an author who can get that is one to watch out for. Great stuff.