I believe this episode of the documentary My Grandparents' War is still available on Channel4's on demand service
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4 December 2019 at 16:50
My sister just emailed me this cutting. Mr Booth taught me maths
at Llandeilo Grammar and Tregib Comprehensive School, and was one of my
favourite teachers. Many pupils found him difficult, but that story may go some
way to explaining why he was how he was (didn't suffer fools gladly)
Mab Meister Very enjoyable read, Bentonbag,
whose the teacher’s son that knew all the answers. PD possibly.
Bentonbag Correct
Bess
Cavalier Wish he’d
taught me maths, particularly geometry, I might have passed my O Level Maths!
Miss Drew ‘Stand up all those in cloud
cuckoo land’ ...
Bentonbag "If I trip over that
briefcase again it and its owner are going out of the window." Form 3. We were on the first floor.
Miss Stephenson He was (one of) my favourite
teacher!
Bentonbag Henffrind just emailed me this
"Strangely I got on okay with Mr Booth and his
methods and thinking suited me.
There
was something about him that made you stick with a problem until you solved it. I still remember you suddenly stopping
in your tracks when you had written "unless they go broody" in your
maths book and not rubbed it out (when we had a problem about x hens laying y
eggs in z days). He taught us through
two other lessons and a whole lesson with him before making a comment."
Tylebach ‘Stop scribing you
Pharisees!!’
Post
Script
Thinking
Carey Mulligan might like to read these stories about her grandfather I emailed
Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review (which was then on BBC5Live) with the links and
an explanation.
A
few days later the most Welsh thing happened.
Middlesister
phoned and said “Mr Booth’s son wants to talk to you, here’s his phone number.”
So
I phoned him.
After saying he’d read the blogs he said “I’m more your Bigsister’s age but I knew
your Middlesister was friends with Miss Venray-that-was and that Miss Venray
was friends with Joseph Cwmifor. Do you know him?”
“Well
I knew his grampa Old Joseph Cwmifor, his sister and brother-in-law were
neighbours and great friends of Mum and Dad. When I was very little,
he used to sometimes give his niece and me a lift
up the hill to Cwmifor primary school.”
“Ah
yes. Anyway I phoned Joseph and asked
him if he had your sister or Miss Venray’s number. He had Miss Venray’s and she gave me your
sister’s number, who said she’d give you mine.”
I would
say ‘only in Llandeilo’ but I suspect many and more rural communities have
these links of friendship and family.
I
never discovered if Carey Mulligan did read the blogs.
If
she did I hope she learnt a little about her grandfather, because her
documentary taught us so much about our maths master.
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