Joining me today and answering my #ThreeTwoOne quick-fire questions is author CE (Cathy) Knight. Cathy’s debut novel, The Best Days, is a contemporary comedy-satire set in a comprehensive high school.
Tell me THREE things about your latest book
It’s funny
It’s real
It’ll surprise you (unless you’re a teacher!)
Tell me about TWO of the characters in your book
Liz Marshall has taught English at King Richard the Lionheart for 15 years. She and the other teachers enjoy plenty of staffroom banter and gallows humour as well as joining in with the head of department’s many wind-ups (occasionally involving the kids).
Liz has a bit of a smart mouth, a wicked sense of humour and is, at heart, something of a rebel. However, she also suffers from Imposter Syndrome and lives in fear of getting into trouble. She’s incredibly stressed-out by lesson observations, which monitor teachers’ performance, and usually goes to pieces when they occur. When we meet her, at the beginning of a new school year, she is hoping her new head hasn’t seen her last rating of ‘requires improvement’.
Throughout the school year, Liz also has to help train a wayward trainee teacher; write a blog from the perspective of an anthropomorphised, Shakespeare-quoting toilet; survive a visit from Ofsted, and finally, ensure that little year seven, Alfie from her tutor group, is not harmed by his violent father.
Gordon Dillon is the new head teacher at King Richard the Lionheart. He’s a narcissist with a superhero complex. On one hand, he wants to be seen as everyone’s easy-going best mate, while on the other, he insists on unquestioning obedience.
Assuming his new staff are all incompetent, he introduces new rules and teaching methods as well as addressing the staff in mixed metaphors and malapropisms. On top of this, he brings in his own protégé to train (spy on) them and, after making some members of staff redundant, gives his wife a job in which she is responsible for, among other things, the students’ safety, a role at which she is almost wilfully incompetent, resulting in potential catastrophe for Liz’s year seven student, Alfie.
If anyone dares to criticise or question Gordon’s authority, we see how quickly his absurdity can turn to menace.
Tell me ONE good reason why people should read your book!
If anyone’s ever wondered what it’s really like to work in a UK high school or what teachers talk about when the kids aren’t around, this is their chance to find out!
Full Book Details
Irrepressible teenagers, irritable teachers and an incomprehensible head.
The summer holidays are over. Liz wonders how she’ll survive the year, wrangling students, handling a trainee and trying to stay on the right side of her new boss—and Ofsted is due any minute.
With last year’s bad appraisal hanging over her, Liz attempts to stay under the radar throughout the events of the school year (teacher training, lesson observations, open evening, sex education, school trips and World Book Day fancy dress)—all while writing a secret blog as an anthropomorphised toilet.
But when Liz needs to protect year seven student, Alfie, from his violent father, the new head and his wife seem intent on obstructing her. And she can’t avoid raising her head above the parapet.
How will Liz keep Alfie safe, avoid being labelled ‘inadequate’ and finally overcome Imposter Syndrome?
This revealing, hilarious and, at times, poignant campus novel reveals what it’s really like to teach in the state system.
About the Author
Cathy Knight has taught English in state high schools since 2002 and has seen everything from a head threatening to assault a teacher with a heavy-duty hole-punch to an FGM-themed word-search produced for a PSHE lesson. These and many other experiences went into her first novel, The Best Days, which was long-listed for the Comedy Women In Print prize, 2019.
She belongs to a small writers’ group, which has been hugely motivating, particularly since three members have had novels and poetry published.
In her limited spare time, Cathy sells her paintings in her Etsy shop and enjoys reading Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood and Donna Tartt and watching TV comedy like The Office (UK) and Alan Partridge. Since finishing The Best Days, she has been writing another novel, inspired by experience. She has two grown-up sons and lives in Worcester with her husband and rescue dog, Poppy.
Social media links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyeknight/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cathyeknight
X: https://x.com/CathyKn65190219
Buying link