E. R. Braithwaite

Caryl Phillips

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To Sir With Love

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A book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all-Moving and inspiring

E.R. Braithwaite's postwar novel about a black teacher fighting to win the respect of white pupils in a school in the East End of London is a milestone in the campaign for racial equality

It is the noblest, most moving, least sentimental account of life in a modern school and of a teacher's struggles with his pupils and with himself that I have come across

A BBC Between the Covers Big Jubilee Read Pick

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CARYL PHILLIPS 
 
In 1945, Rick Braithwaite, a smart, highly educated ex-RAF pilot, looks for a job in British engineering. He is deeply shocked to realise that, as a black man from British Guiana, no one will employ him because of the colour of his skin. In desperation he turns to teaching, taking a job in a tough East End school, and left to govern a class of unruly teenagers. With no experience or guidance, Braithwaite attempts to instill discipline, confound prejudice and ultimately, to teach.

The inspirational story of one man overcoming prejudice in a tough East End school

**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK** 
 
'A milestone in the campaign for racial equality' Guardian 
 
In 1945, Rick Braithwaite, a smart, highly educated ex-RAF pilot, looks for a job in British engineering. He is deeply shocked to realise that, as a black man from British Guiana, no one will employ him because of the colour of his skin. In desperation he turns to teaching, taking a job in a tough East End school, and left to govern a class of unruly teenagers. With no experience or guidance, Braithwaite attempts to instil discipline, confound prejudice and ultimately, to teach. 
 
'Moving and inspiring' New York Times 
 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CARYL PHILLIPS

E. R. Braithwaite (Author) E. R. Braithwaite was born 1922 in British Guiana and educated in British Guiana and the United States. He served in the R. A. F. His publications include To Sir with Love: Experiences While Teaching in a London School (1959); Paid Servant: A Report about Welfare Work in London (1962); A Kind of Home-Coming: A Visit to Africa (1963); A Choice of Straws (1965). Caryl Phillips (Introducer) Caryl Phillips is the author of numerous acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including the novels Crossing the River (shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1993) and A Distant Shore (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2004). Phillips has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN Open Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Granta Best of Young British Writers 1993. He has also written for television, radio, theatre and film.

To Sir With Love

A BBC Between the Covers Big Jubilee Read Pick

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A book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all-Moving and inspiring

E.R. Braithwaite's postwar novel about a black teacher fighting to win the respect of white pupils in a school in the East End of London is a milestone in the campaign for racial equality

It is the noblest, most moving, least sentimental account of life in a modern school and of a teacher's struggles with his pupils and with himself that I have come across

About E. R. Braithwaite

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