Nicola gave us a lively and very interesting February ’22 talk about the background to her debut novel 29 Locks. She is an experienced English teacher who lives in West Sussex. In 2002 she decided to teach in London , at an inner-city comprehensive school.
On her interview day she was taken on an unauthorised tour of the school by three scruffy 6th Formers who demanded to know why she wanted to teach in their …….. school. The school was in Special Measures and had families living in poverty and using food banks. Gangs and drugs featured in the lives of some pupils and unsettled home lives affected student performance. She dedicated the book to one of her students, a Somali who, though not in a gang, was killed on the streets of London. After this tragedy she was moved to write a book about the humour, loyalty and resilience of students disadvantaged by poverty and unsettled home lives. It was also to be a warning to young people against carrying knives and guns. She wrote the book in six weeks but spent a long time in editing. Compromises on the language e.g. toning down the students’ language, had to be made to enable the book to reach a wider audience of young people and students.
Nicola read two extracts from her book in the dialect used by students which is referred to as (MLE – multi-cultural London English). At her school it was a mixture of cockney, Caribbean patois and Bengali which is explained further in the glossary. The school came out of ‘Special Measures’ in 2010 and became `Outstanding’ which was heartening to hear.
The talk prompted several questions from the floor about coping in the classroom and what her future plans were. She stressed the importance of giving unconditional positive regard and praise, and, on occasion, giving students some breakfast! The book has been taken up by the Juventus charity which works with young people. Nicola also works with the Outward Bound programme. A second novel is in the pipeline.
This talk gave us a sobering insight into the lives of inner- city youth, but was presented with a positive attitude and the humble hope that the book will go some way to preventing future tragedies.
Members lined up to buy copies of her book afterwards, an indication of how much they had enjoyed her presentation and looked forward to reading 29 Locks.
Lois Coulthart