Squalor did not frighten me...But somewhere beneath it all was a live, burning thread that ran through these human miseries that was not just mismanagement, nor stupidity nor a faulty social system, but something living, primitive, terrible - something I dare not look in the face" Madge Brigson is a teacher in a Nottinghamshire Elementary school in the 1930s. Here, with her colleagues - ranging from the beautiful, "promiscuous" Jenny to the earnest communist Freda and kind, spinsterish Miss Jones - she battles with the trials and tribulations of that special world: nits in the hair, abusive parents, inspectors' visits, eternal registers, malnutrition, staff quarrels and staff love affairs. To all of this Madge presents an uncompromisingly intelligent and commonsensical face: laughter is never far away as she copes with her pupils, with the harsh circumstances of life in the Depression, and with her own love affair. For Madge is a splendid heroine: determined, perceptive, warm-hearted, she deals with life, and love, unflinchingly and gets the most out of the best - and worst - of it.

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