Gervase Phinn is a teacher, freelance lecturer, author, poet, schools inspector, educational consultant, and visiting professor of education - but none of these is as important to him as his family. For fourteen years he taught in a range of schools, then acted as General Adviser for Language Development in Rotherham before moving on to North Yorkshire, where he spent ten years as a school inspector - time that has provided so much source material for his books. He holds five fellowships, honorary doctorates from Hull, Leicester and Sheffield Hallam universities, and is a patron of a number of children's charities and educational organizations. Gervase lives with his family in Doncaster.