What I'm Reading Now
Dr James Inglis
Headteacher
In “the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost fifty years” (The Wall Street Journal), C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the most remarkable Americans ever to win the Presidency. Progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canalman; crooked election-fixed and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated. James Abram Garfield was all these things and more.
Over nearly two decades in Congress during a polarized era—Reconstruction and the Gilded Age—Garfield served as a peacemaker in a Republican Party and America defined by divisions. He was elected to overcome them. He was killed while trying to do so.
President Garfield is American history at its finest. It is about an impoverished boy working his way from the frontier to the Presidency; a progressive statesman, trying to raise a more righteous, peaceful Republic out of the ashes of civil war; the tragically imperfect course of that reformation, and the man himself; a martyr-President, whose death succeeded in nudging the country back to cleaner, calmer politics.
Miss Meg Bone
Teacher
It's been another memorable year on Diddly Squat Farm - will the chickens finally come home to roost?
Welcome back to Clarkson’s Farm . . .
Where the spring barley crop has failed. Just like the oil seed rape. And the oats turned the colour of a hearing aid. The mushrooms went mouldy. While the sheep, pigs and cows cost more than they earned. At least, the farm shop’s doing a roaring trade in candles – even if they smell like Jeremy’s knacker hammock.
So never mind the rain, the skirmishes with the local planning department and the gargantuan hole in Jeremy’s wallet. Because it’s hard to feel too gloomy about life when there’s a JCB telehandler, a crop-spraying hovercraft and a digger waiting in the barn.
For any man with several metric tons of powerful machinery at his fingertips must be doing something right . . .
Miss Molly Churchward
Teacher
A personal code for a healthier, happier you
When did life get so busy? Work, family, exercise - they're all important but there's never enough time. How can you effortlessly achieve a healthy balance between them all so you can reach your potential?
The Rules of Living Well are here to help. Covering everything from mindfulness, mental health, wellbeing, longevity, energy, balance, perspective, relaxation to exercise, you'll find simple ways to have a healthy attitude and be your best self.
What are you waiting for?