Percy Jackson's

A History of the Percy Jackson Grammar School Adwick-le-Street, Doncaster 1939-1968, by Ken Cooke

[ClickPress, Thu Jul 05 2007] Percy Jackson’s chronicles three decades of school life from the opening of a new state grammar school in 1939 to its conversion to comprehensive in 1968.

World War II started only weeks before the school opened and the first head Mr Field, along with the responsibility of establishing the new school, had to cope with the complications of wartime, whilst his pupils decorated their gasmasks and speculated about a romance between a teacher and the captain of a battleship.

His successor, ‘Chas’ Elliott, was obliged to cram extra pupils into prefabricated buildings and to worry about high wages and Rock ’n Roll deterring pupils from staying on in the sixth form, whilst the last head, John Atherfold, was preparing to impose the new comprehensive system on the more privileged, more up-front generation of the Baby Boomers.

The author, a former pupil at the school, combines the chronology with a goodly helping of nostalgia, sentiment and humour as he considers whether schooldays are indeed the best days of your life. He draws upon abundant recollections from former pupils, many of whom – like him – were the children of mining families and the first generation to attend grammar school.

About the author: After leaving Percy Jackson’s, Ken Cooke became a biologist and enjoyed a career in the international chemical industry. He travelled widely and for some years specialised in sugar cane agronomy. Since retiring he has organised a series of bilateral reunions, celebrating the old school’s exchanges with Germany in the 1950s. In October 2004 he and his long-time German friend Heinz Wartenberg featured in BBC Radio 4’s Home Truths with John Peel.

PUBLICATION DATE 1 July 2007
ISBN: 978-1905886-784
Price: £12.95

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