To Sir, With Love (Stage Version) (NHB Modern Plays)

By E. R. Braithwaite

An uplifting story of the triumph of love, inspiration and hope against all odds, laced with the song and dance of austere, 1940s Britain.

Ricky Braithwaite, an ex-RAF fighter pilot and Cambridge graduate, arrives in London in 1948. Despite his First Class degree in electronic engineering he is turned down for job after job in his chosen profession and discovers the reality of life as a black man in post-war England. Taking the only job he can get, Ricky begins his first teaching post, in a tough but progressive East End school.

Supported by an enlightened headmaster, the determined teacher turns teenage rebelliousness into self-respect, contempt into consideration and hate into love, and on the way, Ricky himself learns that he has more in common with his students than he had realised.

'funny and tough... an unlikely tale, beautifully told' - Express

'stark and engaging... a poetic period piece' - Whatsonstage.com

'a clever re-working... beautifully judged with warmth and a lot of humour' - British Theatre Guide

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Nov 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780015514

E. R. Braithwaite

E. R. Braithwaite was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1912. Educated at the City College of New York and the University of Cambridge, he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Braithwaite spent 1950 to 1960 in London, first as a schoolteacher and then as a welfare worker—experiences he described in To Sir, With Love and Paid Servant, respectively. In 1966 he was appointed Guyana’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. He also held positions at the World Veterans Federation and UNESCO, was a professor of English at New York University’s Institute for Afro-American Affairs, taught creative writing at Howard University, and was the author of five nonfiction books and two novels. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 104.