‘Hugely accomplished’ – Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown
‘An exceptionally talented writer’ – Emma Finn, Conville and Walsh
‘Brilliantly depicts the emotional knife-edge upon which a teacher and her classes rest’ – The Literary Consultancy
A chapter from Middle Class was short-listed for the Bridport Prize. You can read it here.
She wasn’t allowed to bury her mother. Now she must attempt to resurrect her career.
It is September of 2020, and a young English teacher must return to in-person teaching to face the child she tore into just as lockdown was hitting. She has spent months in virtual isolation, unable to attend her mother’s funeral and wondering how she will find a way back to restoring her reputation. Her answer is Charles Dickens: as this class of children from a West London estate face examinations, she will teach them Great Expectations. Yet nothing will be quite as simple as she hopes.
Unflinching, irreverent and ultimately hopeful, Middle Class is a searing insight into the complex theatre of a London comprehensive and a stunning examination of education and social mobility in modern Britain from one of its most exciting new writers.