Over Hill and Dale

Phinn describes superbly the landscape and attitudes of Yorkshire. If you have lived there and loved it as I have, then so much of this will ring true.

I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who is diconbobulated by the violence and harshness of City living - a true tonic!


Probably better on the radio   July 9, 2002
 14 out of 87 found this review helpful

If you like cliches, one-dimensional characters, unrealistic dialogue, inconsequential stories, saccharin-sweet sentimentality and repetition, then this is the book for you. Alternatively, you can read the book, as I did, during a bout of fever and let Gervase Phinn's aimless meanderings rev up your delirium.

It's a rare author who can achieve what Gervase Phinn has done in creating the characters of his colleagues - men who bicker so tediously the the reader finds himself fast-forwarding to the end of their conversation in the certain knowledge that he will not have missed anything either important or amusing. A previous reviewer notes that the funniest moment, the summit of Phinn's comedic art, was an epidemic of head-lice. That really says it all about the comic achievements of "Over Hill and Dale".

And thoe characters. The men are infantile. The women are either harridans or as wet as Yorkshire puddles. (The exception, a sassy female school inspector, is wheeled on for the sake of a painfully-predictable little pseudo-feminist anecdote and then disappears from view for the rest of the book.) The narrator himself comes across as a naive prig.

I tried reading short passages aloud to myself, in order to understand why "Over Hill and Dale" was so popular when on the radio. And indeed, when you slow the prose down to speaking pace the bombardment of of cliches becomes more tolerable. So, in the desire to conclude on a positive note, let it be recorded that I can not recommend this book too strongly to slow readers.


An honest amusing account of life as a school inspector.   January 6, 2002
 40 out of 43 found this review helpful

Being a teacher and having survived the dreaded OFSTED, I was drawn to read about the life of a school inspector in the hope that it would make them seem more human! Gervase Phinn writes with honesty and warmth abouth his experiences whilst working as an inspector in North Yorkshire.

At times I was laughing out loud at his tales. Phinn describes in detail the sort of embarrassing incidents that you believe only happen to yourself! I especially loved his account of when he caught head lice and then passed them on to all his colleagues in the education department!

Phinn details the lessons that he has observed and the words of wisdom that came from the mouths of the children. He shows a genuine interest in the children and is at times moved to tears by their contributions.

This book will be enjoyed by anyone with a sense of humour but especially those in the education sector!


Wonderful tale of Yorkshire folk, gentle humour.   December 11, 2001
 21 out of 27 found this review helpful

I loved this book. It is full of witty and well observed incidents. The characters are nicely described and the scenery......well it makes you want to go. These books are similar to the Herriot series.