A CLASS ACT:
Journalist, lecturer and former teacher James McEnaney is on a mission to “cut through the endless political grandstanding, media misrepresentations, impenetrable statistical releases and pernicious class-based assumptions” he says obscures the debate on Scottish education. In his new book, Class Rules: The Truth about Scottish Schools (Luath Press, £9.99), he describes the recent SQA results fiasco as the biggest “scandal” of the devolution era.
The publisher says the book aims to clarify the complexities surrounding Scotland’s education system by “delving into the successes and failures of the Curriculum for Excellence, interrogating the rhetoric around closing the ‘attainment gap’ and asking what needs to be done to improve the system for young people across the country”.
Class Rules will be launched next week (Wednesday, September 8) at 6.30pm in Blackwells book shop, Edinburgh. The event is free but tickets can be booked at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/class-rules-james-mcenaney-tickets-168485076399
LISTEN UP:
Radio listeners may feel they’ve come to know the Baron of Conach, one of the unforgettable characters in James Robertson’s News of the Dead (Hamish Hamilton, £18.99). The novel could be heard all last week as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, with reader Mark Bonnar giving voice to the various languages and dialects that feature in what Herald critic, Malcolm Forbes, described as “a wise and hugely satisfying novel about stories, sanctuary and … the 'strange, heeliegoleerie world we bide in'." (He was quoting the Baron himself.)
Based in Angus, Robertson is the author of several novels including Booker-longlisted The Testament of Gideon Mack, and also general editor of Scots language imprint Itchy Coo. He’ll be discussing his latest book, News of the Dead, with journalist and broadcaster Allan Little at a virtual Waterstones event on Wednesday (September 8). To book a ticket, visit https://www.waterstones.com/events/james-roberston-in-conversation/online-events
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