Having read a fair few interviews with Frank McCourt it didn’t take me long to figure out that he writes like he talks-plain and simple. Teacher Manis a memoir of life everybody can relate to.

“In the world of books,” McCourt informs us in the opening chapter, “I am a late bloomer.” Flustered by his fame (or so it appears) he informs us that after writing about his life in America in ,Tis he felt he had given teaching “short shrift” so he is writing this book.

The publication of two previous volumes of memoirs has caused McCourt’s cynicism-evident from the first-to mature. The cynic is almost so bad its tragic. The memoir reads like a commic novel-it’s easy, simple and cynical.

Having recently left the high school English class myself, I had an English teacher like Mr McCourt and he was incredible. McCourt tells how he brought concepts of grammar and writing alive for his classes in three New York high schools. He tells it openly, compellingly and with a drop of wry Irish humour. Sure to be read and appreciated for a long time by all English teachers and others.