Life for the Gervase Phinn is about to become not unlike the rambling hills of the Dales themselves - up and down and all over the place. After a routine school inspection - and a rather brutal report - culminates with a teacher being forced into early retirement, Gervase is left feeling his year ha...

Life for the Gervase Phinn is about to become not unlike the rambling hills of the Dales themselves - up and down and all over the place. After a routine school inspection - and a rather brutal report - culminates with a teacher being forced into early retirement, Gervase is left feeling his year hasn't exactly begun on the right foot.