Before Tom Brown

This is a rare achievement - a book that ends where all other books on the subject begin! Before Tom Brown traces 2000 unexplored years of the school story, unearthing forgotten texts and manuscripts, and re-writing literary and educational history. This readable, scholarly, and meticulously researched book is truly remarkable in its range and originality. Robert Kirkpatrick, independent scholar, is one of a kind. - Peter Hunt, Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature, Cardiff University, Adjunct Professor, Dublin City University. Robert Kirkpatrick's Before Tom Brown is an erudite and informative history of the school story in English children's literature filling a silence not broached by others. It will be an invaluable source for researchers and those generally interested in the field. An essential read. - Professor Jean Webb, Director of the International Forum for Research in Children's Literature, University of Worcester   Robert Kirkpatrick is one of, if not the leading authority on the history of school stories, and here in a wide-ranging display of research, he traces the development of the genre as far back as the Sumerians and Greeks, while also examining such unusual sources as the Anglo-Saxon Aelfric and our own Geoffrey Chaucer. A readable and impressive work. - Dennis Butts, Former Chairman of the Children's Books History Society.