It is
the eighth year that Jack has been headmaster of the Ragley-on-the-Forest
primary school, and it is clear that change is in the air.
As the autumn term starts it is now 1984, the year of the
miner's strike and also where there is an air that soon a
national curriculum will be introduced that will change teaching
forever. However, in this peaceful corner of rural Yorkshire
some things never change
This is a heartwarming series and one I look forward to each
year. It manages to be equal parts nostalgia, humor, poignancy
and social history and manages it better than most. As with
all series it is part of the fun not to just meet new characters
and read about their experiences, but also find out what the
series characters are getting up to. Ruby misses her husband
very much, but has a new friend; Vera is involved with a flower
show, the school choir sings carols for a televised service
in York. Dorothy has a new man, Petula worries about her husband's
absences and the binmen tie the knot, among other things.
It is a wonderful look back at the way we were thirty years
ago with Cabbage Patch dolls, Trivial Pursuit, Dallas and
what now seems to be a sort of wistful but fast vanishing
innocence. In short, there is a lot to enjoy in here and long
may this series continue.
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