In this edition of our Canterbury magazine, we caught up with one of our favourite authors Simon Pickering whose new book What Page, Sir? has just recently been published.
In the space of just three years, Simon Pickering has published four books with What Page, Sir? his most personal to date, referencing stories of his school days in Canterbury, back in the first half of the 1980s – at the now demolished Geoffrey Chaucer School.
CommunityAd discussed his latest book, his writing influences and his greatest memories of our wonderful city…
Can you give readers a brief synopsis of What Page, Sir?
What Page, Sir? records the hilarious and sometimes painful experience of an English teacher as he struggles through some very familiar literary texts with some very unenthusiastic teenagers. Alongside the comedy that a teacher could really live without, is a fresh and irreverent look at the stalwarts of the school curriculum.
The book features An Inspector Calls, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, plus the obvious works by Jane Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare – texts that seem to have been the staple for secondary schools forever. Beneath the buffoonery in the classroom, this book makes a more serious point about the education we are serving up for our children and asks whether it’s finally time for a change. The book draws on nearly 30 years in the classroom, and also on his own time at school in Canterbury in the early 1980s.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I began writing in 2016 (originally under the name Adam Tangent) as a form of therapy, on the train home from my job as a school teacher – an antidote to difficult teenagers and pointless government and Senior Leadership initiatives. What Page, Sir? was also a welcome diversion from COVID restrictions which made school and everywhere else in need of cheering up over the last eighteen months.
When did you realise you wanted to pursue a career in writing and who have been your influences?
It is a cliché that a lot of English teachers are frustrated writers. Getting a job as an English teacher is rather easier, unfortunately, than getting a book published. Now it is possible to cheat and self-publish, which is what I started doing. What Page, Sir? is the first of my five books which has been taken up by a real publisher (Red Door Press). My alter ego, Adam Tangent, which was the name I published the first four books under, was stolen from a character in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Decline and Fall, and there are frequent references to it in my books. It would be a bit cheeky to call Evelyn Waugh an influence but I am a fan.
How realistic are some of the references to your own experiences?
I am ashamed to say that a lot of what appears in my teaching books has come straight out of the horse’s mouth. Pupils say a lot of memorable and funny things and I confess I have sometimes written it straight down when I am supposed to have been teaching or marking their books.
What are your fondest memories of living in Canterbury?
I haven’t lived in Canterbury since I was a student working in the summer holidays, but then it was reading in the grounds of the Cathedral, whilst I ate my sandwiches at lunchtime. Now you can’t just walk in as you used to be able to do, which seems wrong. A close second would be sitting outside by the river at The Miller’s Arms.