During the first pandemic lockdown last year former Prince William School, Oundle headteacher, Chris Lowe, wrote a tale-a-day about life and goings-on in schools. Now, ex-students and staff are publishing a book of fifty of his tales. Called ‘Telling Tales Out of School’ the book will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the school in September 1971.
Chris Lowe, 84, who was the founder head of the school, set himself the task of writing 100 stories about school life, one every day for 101 days.
Chris explained, ‘I took Good Friday off, to give both myself and the readers a bit of a rest,’ ‘I have ended up writing 140 tales… and the readership has grown to more than 500. It is now time to watch our rhubarb grow.’
Chris Lowe has donated the proceeds from the sale of the book to charity. The first one to benefit will be the Oundle-based ‘James Rutterford Trust’.
Pat Rutterford, who with her late husband set up ‘The James Rutterford Trust’ in 1993 in memory of their son, James, who was a student at Prince William School, said:
‘The tales are delightful and I am so grateful to Chris for donating them to raise money for our trust which supports students of Prince William School.
We are fortunate, too, to have a professional editor, illustrators and business experts, who like Chris are members of the Prince William School community. They have all given their services free of charge.’
Jenny Blount, who is leading the publishing project said:
‘The tales are a chronicle of the funny side of school life in the second half of the twentieth century, but what they tell us about growing up and living in a community is timeless. Every reader, whichever school they attended, will recognise with a smile something that is familiar… I defy anyone not to laugh aloud at some of the hilarious shenanigans!’
The book, ‘Telling Tales out of School’ will be launched in September 2021 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the school in 1971.
A reunion for present and past students is planned at the school for Saturday 4th September 2021. Further details of the event are available from the website “tellingtales.bigcartel.com.
‘Already nearly three thousand former students have accessed the information set out in the group post ‘PWS 50th Anniversary Reunion 2021’ on Facebook,’ said Jenny Blount. ‘So long as the country can weather the restrictions of the pandemic we are going to have a really memorable event, a real ‘Party on the Park’. Chris Lowe’s book will be a major fund-raiser on the day. We are expecting hundreds of ex-students and staff to meet up again, and enjoy the attractions we are planning.’
The chief guest at the event will be ex-student Nev Fountain, who is now a member of staff of ‘Private Eye’, a lead writer on Radio 4’s ‘Dead Ringers’, a ‘Dr Who’ writer and humorous detective novelist writing under the pseudonym Mervyn Stone.
