To Sir With Love
  • Published: 2 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9780099483694
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $24.99

To Sir With Love

A BBC Between the Covers Big Jubilee Read Pick

Formats & editions
EBook
30 Sep 2013
Paperback
2 Jan 2015
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The inspirational story of one man overcoming prejudice in a tough East End school

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.
  • Published: 2 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9780099483694
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

E. R. Braithwaite

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).

Praise for To Sir With Love

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

New York Times

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

Guardian

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

Michael Croft, Observer
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