No Textbook, So Boys Wrote Their Own

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 14

No Textbook, So Boys Wrote Their Own

A 100,000-word history of modern China from 1900 to 1968, written by two pupils of the Shirley Boys’ High School, has been submitted to a city publishing firm for possible publication as a text-book. The boys, Paul Harrison and Murray Horton, who are in the lower sixth form, wrote the book during the Christmas holidays after they sat for school certificate, because “there was no text-book available on modern China for our school certificate history syllabus,” Paul Harrison said. The boys began research for the book after finishing school certificate and worked through the school holidays, working eight hours a day. The book was completed before they returned to school this year.

Paul Harrison said they both went to the Public Library until they had read every book on modern China

available and then read newspapers and magazines to gather material for a history of the last decade. Mrs M. W. Harrison typed the work for the boys, and they took it back to school. The headmaster (Mr C. V. Gallagher) asked a member of the board of governors, Mr G. Burns, to read the book. Mr Burns said it was a firstclass effort

An interview was arranged for the boys at Whitcombe and Tombs yesterday and they submited the book. They were told the book was too involved for a textbook, and that its chances of commercial publication were very slim, Paul Harrison said. The boys still hope to have the book published at school if It is not accepted. Both boys are candidates for the university entrance examination this year and both hope to study for a degree when they leave School.