Love from sir (From The Northern Echo)

Love from sir

4:00pm Monday 15th August 2011 in Features

Mike Laycock discovers that former deputy headteacher Andy Seed was stunned by the sudden interest in his first book.

ALL Creatures Great And Small, James Herriot’s humorous tales of veterinary life in the Dales, became a global bestseller and then a successful TV series and two hit films.

Now a former teacher from North Yorkshire has written All Teachers Great And Small, about his hilarious experiences after he moved from York to the Dales in the 1980s to work in a village school.

Instead of animals and farmers, the stars of Andy Seed’s book are the young characters in his classroom and his staff room colleagues. Extracts have already been published in a national newspaper and agents are interested in a possible future TV adaptation.

Andy, of Amotherby, a University of York graduate who did teacher training at what is now York St John University, says his success in winning a three-book deal from major publisher Headline was the culmination of almost a decade of hard work.

He wrote his first book having left teaching after a spell as deputy head at a village school near York, and having become established as a poet, writer of non-fiction for children and creator of educational resources. Although friends and family loved it, there was utter indifference from publishers and agents. “I eventually put it on the shelf,” says Andy.

He finally began to make progress after reaching the final of a competition called The People’s Author on a daytime television show, hosted by Alan Titchmarsh.

Andy’s book extract did not win, but he persuaded the head judge to help him find a literary agent who might be interested in his work.

With her support and guidance, Andy worked for another six months on the book until she was ready to offer it to publishers, and Headline promptly signed him up.. “When an offer was made, I was completely stunned,” he says. “It was incredible that there was suddenly all this interest after there had been no interest whatsoever for so long.”

􀁧 All Teachers Great and Small (Headline, £12.99)