Book Description

This is the ‘real life’ story of Britain’s first Black Headmaster of a large secondary school. In 1982 when the news first broke, all of Yorkshire where it happened, indeed, all the United Kingdom and beyond came alive with the media frenzy which attended the historical occasion. This was no fluke since that feat was repeated four years later by the same person, this time in the Midlands at one of Birmingham’s largest comprehensive schools. Once the media frenzy, the seemingly glamour of his achievements, was over, Duncan, the Headmaster in question, had to face the reality of managing and leading the schools which he successively headed. These were not places of friendship but more like hostile gauntlets of racism and sabotage which Duncan must navigate daily whilst equally hostile external eyes watched his every move threateningly and, at times, abusively. Navigating these obstacles successfully soon became a prominent aspect of the job description of this Headteacher. Beyond school life, his journey was no less hazardous. It was littered or peppered throughout with difficulties such as police stops and searches, high speed police chase on the motorways, legal battles, romantic and marital discords leading to police lock-up, beatings by in-laws and hospitalization on his wedding day for daring to marrying a Sikh girl. With this Sikh girl, Duncan would make the headlines again in the same year as becoming Britain’s first Headmaster of a secondary school. In the August of 1982, Duncan’s Sikh wife gave birth to the world’s first black test-tube twins which opened the way for a whole new dimension in Duncan’s world.