Middle Class

'Hugely accomplished' - Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown
'An exceptionally talented writer' - Emma Finn, Conville and Walsh
'Brilliantly depicts the emotional knife-edge upon which a teacher and her classes rest' - The Literary Consultancy

She wasn't allowed to bury her mother. Now she must attempt to resurrect her career.
It is September of 2020, and a young English teacher must return to in-person teaching to face the child she tore into just as lockdown was hitting. She has spent months in virtual isolation, unable to attend her mother's funeral and wondering how she will find a way back to restoring her reputation. Her answer is Charles Dickens: as this class of children from a West London estate face examinations, she will teach them Great Expectations. Yet nothing will be quite as simple as she hopes.

Unflinching, irreverent and ultimately hopeful, Middle Class is a searing insight into the complex theatre of a London comprehensive and a stunning examination of education and social mobility in modern Britain from one of its most exciting new writers.

Kester Brewin was shortlisted for The Bridport Prize in 2020 and The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for short fiction in 2022. The author of a number of celebrated works of non-fiction, he has taught in London schools for over twenty years and writes regularly for the national education press. Middle Class is his first novel.

Born into a Yorkshire vicarage, Kester Brewin has taught mathematics in South East London schools for over twenty years and writes regularly for the national education press. The author of a number of celebrated books of non-fiction, notably Mutiny - an exploration of the impact of pirate culture, and Getting High - a history of the human quest for flight, he has twice presented at the UK's premier TEDx event and spoken on his work across the US and Europe. An excerpt from Middle Class was shortlisted for The Bridport Prize in 2020, and his story The Rot was shortlisted for the Dinesh Prize for Short Fiction in 2022. He lives in London with his two teenage children.