His best-selling books about life as a North Yorkshire school inspector are serialised on the radio and in newspapers, and will soon be a TV series. CHRIS TITLEY met the Herriot of education

GERVASE Phinn is a talker. We agree to meet at Constantine's statue outside the Minster, and by the time I arrive he is deep in conversation with Paul, our photographer, about ill-disciplined youngsters and what can be done to bring them into line. His observations are expressed with greater eloquence and expertise than most. He has been working with young people all his adult life.

After teaching English at a range of schools he spent ten years as a school inspector in North Yorkshire, later appointed principal adviser.

He loves learning and he loves teaching. Parents who do not care how their children behave or what they do at school frustrate him almost beyond words.

Almost. But not quite.

Phinn is an educational evangelist. He spread the word first through his work, then though his public talks and now with his books.

The first two gently humorous instalments of life as a school inspector sold more than 250,000 copies. The author's belief in every child's potential, and his passion for the Yorkshire landscape, shines through, and has brought him a mass audience.

The latest book, Head Over Heels In The Dales, sees him settle down to blissful married life. But office politics and the constant challenge of children's education keep him very busy.

Gervase's love of books comes from his Rotherham childhood. His steel worker father and his mother, a nurse, were great readers.

"Although we didn't have much money, my parents were brilliant. I never remember being smacked, I never remember my father shouting at me, he's such a gentle chap."

This loving home gave him confidence. Children "need their self-esteem building up, to feel good about themselves and good about people around them," he said. And they can be inspired by their parents' aspirations for them.

"My mother said, 'I always expect the moon. If you expect the moon, you might go through the roof'."

Gervase is full of such grass-roots wisdom. He has the storyteller's gift for reproducing memorable lines, and he certainly has an ear for the idiom of Yorkshire kids: the books resound with schoolchildren's sagacity.

His own schooling was made enjoyable thanks to two or three inspirational teachers. Among them was Miss Wainwright, "a diminutive figure with her hair in a bun" who brought Shakespeare to life.

"Miss Wainwright used to be rather eccentric in many ways," he says. "I think they ought to allow teachers to be a bit different."

His books are peopled with eccentrics. "I do exaggerate and embellish, and I change people's names," he confesses. "But they are all based on real people.

"The negatives - and you have to have negative characters, like Mrs Savage - are amalgams of the kind of people you meet: in this case the archetypal power-dressed, forceful, dynamic woman who frightens you to death."

Despite his success, Gervase is self-effacing about his writing ability - and thrilled by the comparisons to James Herriot.

"I am not saying this with any sense of false modesty, but I know he's a better writer: I did teach English for 15 years, but he's a very accomplished writer, so any comparison to my books is immensely flattering."

Like the Herriot books, Gervase's stories are being made into a television series. David Nobbs, the Harrogate-based creator of Reggie Perrin, is adapting them.

Gervase said David has just completed the first episode. "He told me, 'you're too nice in the books, so I made you a bit more critical'. I love it!"

So who would he like to play him on telly? He's a big fan of Bill Maynard on Heartbeat but thinks he might be a bit old.

Suddenly his eyes light up. "Sean Bean. I wouldn't mind that!"

- Head Over Heels In The Dales by Gervase Phinn is published by Michael Joseph, price £16.99.

Updated: 11:09 Wednesday, April 03, 2002