Jane A. Medwell Book order

On a tiny Greek island, a goatherd living a solitary existence receives an unexpected gift that changes his life. A priest rediscovers his true vocation. A former shopgirl flees the city to reinvent herself as a colourful and mysterious grande dame. 'The Other Side of the Island' uncovers a world that is mostly hidden from the gaze of summer visitors. It is a world of shermen and farmers, shopkeepers and odd-job-men, expats and migrant workers, wives and husbands. Their stories are, by turns, poignant, funny, tragic and thought-provoking. The island is us.

A comic novel told in the distinctive voice of the bibulous old Sir John Falstaff, A Fool's Pilgrimage is a daybook written in the early years of the fifteenth century. However, life in the late Middle Ages is often far from comical, and our hero's adventures often reveal the seamier side of the period. Peopled with strange and wonderful characters, such as Denys the Mad Holy Man, Guillermo the Gypsy Prince, Jeanne the Whore, and Jean-Baptiste of the Bone-Handled Knife, we are whisked through medieval France in a series of hilarious escapades. But the sardonic wit seventy-year-old Falstaff uses to characterise his fellow travellers is also turned unsparingly on himself. Sir John knows he is lying, untrustworthy, opportunistic, but also resourceful, adaptive and in the end, however battered, a survivor.  Like the true hero of the picaresque story, he is at once a lamentable rogue and great fun, deplored but held in real, if guilty, affection.

A practical, standards-based text that extends and deepens subject knowledge and helps trainees turn that into effective teaching.

The book shows that teaching literacy across the curriculum can enhance learning and teaching effectiveness, and demonstrates how this can be achieved.