Miss Cullen finds herself in a dreadful predicament. Four years from retirement, she can no longer meet the educational standards expected nor control her pupils at Besley High School for girls. She knows that no other school will hire her now, but if she is sacked or doesn’t work until she’s 60, she will lose her pension. Her only hope is to hang on. But her poor exam results affect the standing of the whole school. Her colleagues embark on a campaign against her to save their own positions and she retaliates by involving the school inspector. Into this hostile environment comes Viola Kennedy, a young new teacher full of optimism and ideas, who instead gets caught up in the conspiracies and swirling resentments. A quietly devastating novel about the realities of life for single working women in the 1920s and the systems that failed them.
Author
Eleanor Scott (1892~1965) was born Helen Madeline Leys in Middlesex, the daughter of John Kirkwood Leys, barrister and novelist. Her early education was provided solely by her mother, Ellen, who prepared both of her daughters for going on to Oxford. After the Great War, Helen Leys became a teacher, later rising to the position of Principal of an Oxford teacher training college. Her first short story to appear in print was ‘The Room’, which appeared in The Cornhill Magazine in October 1923, credited to H. M. Leys. In 1928, the first work bearing the pen name Eleanor Scott appeared: the controversial novel War Among Ladies, which was published by Ernest Benn... Her final novel, Puss in the Corner... was published in November 1934. [http://hauntedlibraryblog.blogspot.de...]
