Re-educated How I changed my job, my home, my husband and my hair

by Lucy Kellaway

'I am immersed in a new world that feels a long way from my old one. Though I've not been re-invented, what has happened is just as radical and a lot more interesting: I am being re-educated.'

Lucy Kellaway had a comfortable life. For years she had the same prestigious job, the same husband, and the same home. To the casual observer, she was both happy and successful. But one day, Lucy began to realise that the life she had built for herself no longer suited her. Was it too late to start again?

The answer was no - so she proceeded to tear down both marriage and career, and went back to school. Retraining as a teacher, Lucy discovers there is a world of new possibilities awaiting her - and learns that you can teach an old dog new tricks (providing they are willing to un-learn a few old ones along the way).

A witty and moving story of one woman's pursuit of a new life, Re-educated is a celebration of education's power to transform our lives at any age, and an essential companion for anyone facing the joy - and pain - of starting again.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Education, Audiobook, Business, Autobiography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2021

About the author

Lucy Kellaway is the management columnist at the Financial Times. Her column is syndicated in The Irish Times. In addition she has worked as energy correspondent, Brussels correspondent, a Lex writer, and interviewer of business people and celebrities, all with the FT. She has become best known for her satirical commentaries on the limitations of modern corporate culture. She is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service daily business programme Business Daily. At the British Press Awards 2006 she was named Columnist of the Year.

Reviews

[Gretchen Rubin]

A fascinating account of how the author re-built her life, and what resulted.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

From the FT article: 'Do not buy this house' - Lucy Kellaway bought it anyway (April 5th, 2018)

The photos on the website were a lie. The Framehouse was shabbier than they let on. Equally, the pictures failed to describe the magic of the place. The way the light shone through the branches of the sloping glass roof. The height of the ceilings. The quiet.

I stood at the entrance, with the orange worktop stretching ahead towards the pond, and felt entirely certain. I had to live here.

Looking back, I don’t think it had much to do with beauty. Instead it was a dubious and surely dangerous conviction that this house would make me both happier and more interesting. If I were freed from the Georgian and Victorian up-and-down spaces that had defined family existence, this place would be a new start. Not only would life be more exciting among the bright orange, I would be more exciting too.

Like Lucy Kellaway, I am totally addicted to the mind-expanding (potentially life expanding) 'hard-core property porn' that The Modern House has to offer. Many times over the years I have fantasised about buying various of the houses I have discovered there and then changing my life to fit around a house. (Just this week I found myself contemplating a house in Derbyshire that came with its own art-house cinema. For a day at least I was completely enamoured with the idea that I could live in Derbyshire - so near Chatsworth! - and run my own art-house cinema.) Anyway, I digress.

For many years, Lucy Kellaway was a columnist at the FT (Financial Times) and it's pretty obvious - from the structure and style and tone of this book - that she knows exactly how to catch her audience's attention. She certainly snagged mine straight away. As it turns out, buying a wooden house in Hackney with a bright orange Corian countertop was a catalyst for a great many changes that happened in the author's life within a short span of time. The house is important, certainly - and Kellaway does devote an entire chapter to it - but really this book is not about a property search at all. It's more about taking a chance, following one's instincts, and the creative possibilities of creating a whole new life for oneself in 'young-old' age.

Of all of the changes that Kellaway makes in her life, the one she dwells on the most in this book is her co-creation of the educational charity Now Teach which encourages accomplished early retirees (or career changers) to retrain as teachers. Kellaway did this herself and now works as as economics teacher at an academy in Hackney. A good deal of the book covers her attempts to bring attention (and more importantly, funding) to Now Teach and then she focuses in (with a lot of self-deprecating humour) on her fledgling teacher experiences. Kellaway does not make any attempt to hide or downplay her own background, with its various privileges, and instead she uses her personal experiences with education (her own, and her children's) as a way of understanding the different sorts of pressures that her students face. Today, in the UK, the latest GCSE grades have just been released and it is being pointed out that the gap in attainment between richer and poorer pupils has widened in this coronavirus-interrupted year. Kellaway was already predicting that outcome as she wrote her book.

As Kellaway writes:

Lockdown taught all of us - teachers, parents and students - something I hope we don't forget for a very long time. School is essential. It is there not only to teach, but to baby-sit, to socialise and to provide structure. Teenagers fared poorly without the routine and conviviality of school - and so did I.

Kellaway tends to be quite a 'breezy' writer and I would have liked a bit more detail at times. Overall, though, I adored this book. It was a quick, engrossing read, but thoughtful, too. The way she shapes the ending - so humorous, so apt - is perfection.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you would expect from former FT journalist Lucy Kellaway, this was a well-written and enjoyable read. The book was about her decision in her late-50s to quit her job as a journalist, end her marriage, move house and become a teacher - plus setting up an organisation to encourage others towards the latter end of their career to become teachers as well. Even one of those things could be exhausting in itself, so to do all of them in a very short space of time (and survive) is more than impressive!

A lot of the focus of the book was about Lucy's decision to retrain as a teacher and how that then played out. Possibly part of the purpose of the book was to encourage others to consider becoming teachers as well. Had I ever considered such a possibility previously, having read this book, I would never consider it again. The dedication and seeming all life-consuming nature of being a teacher is more than I'm ever likely to want to give to a job (sorry Lucy...). But I think it will leave you a little bit in awe of what teachers do, if you didn't feel like that already.

I think the book could be accused of showing the choices that are open to someone when they are middle-class and privileged. Can most of us really afford to make some of these choices, however well meaning we might be? But I think Lucy Kellaway would acknowledge that herself and also recognised the very different life-chances and opportunities that many of her pupils have.

I thought this was a fascinating read that might encourage us to think about whether some part of our life would benefit, even in a small way, from change and to be bold and take a chance.

[Claire O'Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, although to be frank this read more as a chance to follow a career change as a consequence of being in a positive financial position to do so . Many teachers would perhaps be infuriated at the lack of coverage of exhaustion, low salary and inability to find affordable housing ..

[Jamie Klingler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure that I was the correct audience for the book; but certainly learned a lot about not wanting to read a memoir which is entirely written in the past tense. Also, reading it under the shadow of the current Kate Clanchy racism scandal revolving around how kids are identified; it didn’t feel introspective or critical enough.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Kellaway split with her husband, resigned from her well-paid high-status job as a journalist with the Financial Times and retrained as a teacher at a tough inner-city school.

Part of me thinks "Well done you!" but mostly I think she's insane. At one point she expresses a desire to teach until she's 75. Honestly, that's bonkers.

The book takes a long time to get going - for more than the first third of the book she doesn't even set foot in a classroom. She writes a lot about interior design which probably would have been just as good a direction for a career change as she's clearly really passionate about it.

It would be hard not to like a woman who takes on a decrepit house that leaks like a sieve, manages to stay on civil terms with her ex-husband, and has such a genuine determination to make the world a better place.

Would I do it? No way. And most people wouldn't. But that's fine. I wouldn't walk to the South Pole either but I'd read about people doing it.

[Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable read about making major changes to your life in your 50s and 60s - a time where many people might be hesitant to change their career, living situation or even their hair, such are the grooves they have settled into. At age 57, Lucy Kellaway changes everything about her life - she ends her marriage, stops dyeing her hair, moves to a new home that's the complete opposite of what she's lived in her whole life and, the biggest change of all, leaves her stable, financially-rewarding job as columnist at the Financial Times to retrain as a secondary school teacher.

I went through a similar experience in my 20s and now I'm 40, I've often thought that such a dramatic reinvention would not be something I could pull off now, or in the future. Reading this book has reminded me of the fact that we can always change our lives if we have the will and the courage to do so. Age is not just a number, it is simply the amount of time you've been alive for - and you'd do better, Kellaway argues, to focus on the life you have ahead of you.

Lucy Kellaway doesn't shy away from the big questions - she discusses privilege, which she admits she has in abundance and that has certainly helped her to make the choices she did, as well as the racism faced by her students in the education system. In sharing her experiences, she presents a measured and thoughtful meditation on what makes a good teacher, and it isn't necessarily what she thought, going in.

This is a great read for anyone who is thinking of taking a leap of faith - whatever age you are - as it's a bolstering and uplifting reminder that life is full of possibilities and change really is possible, with hard work, self belief and a bit of luck. But ultimately - and I think I liked this message most of all - our characters very rarely change, it is our experiences that educate and re-educate us.

Highly recommended!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

[Jenny Keefe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this memoir. Lucy Kellaway is such a brilliant writer - I’m quite jealous of the kids that get to do economics lessons with her. In a few months Kellaway goes from being one of FT’s top columnists to a trainee teacher who gets hauled out of lessons by the SLT for wearing the wrong shoes. It’s a really interesting insight into teaching, though I’d read a washing machine instruction manual if it was written by Kellaway - wanted to underline every sentence! This book is humble, clever, honest - and as funny as it gets. Thank you to Ebury and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Kate Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been an English teacher for my whole career, starting in my early 20s, changing schools just twice and then leaving due to the pressure in my early 50s. I finally found balance teaching one to one in an academy where they value students and are organised enough to give them this opportunity. I’ve seen many changes in education but my views have remained mostly the same I would say. So I was really interested to read about Lucy Kellaway leaving her job as journalist at the FT and retraining as a teacher in her late 50s. Any teacher would recognise some of the impossible pressures of the job, but to Lucy it’s a completely different kind of pressure to the one she was used to, she finds the job exhausting but not stressful. She loves being in the classroom, loves talking to teenagers but is quite conflicted about how best to help them. Her experience mirrors that of all teachers now - what you are teaching is how to pass exams. The space for creativity, discussion, spontaneity is all gone, and teachers work harder than ever, show such care for their students and are barely rewarded or recognised for their efforts. Lucy questions whether teachers change lives; it’s hard to see how they do any more with the system and climate we live in. But they are there for students day in day out and their compassion is as strong as ever.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to read Lucy Kellaway's column on FT and listen to her podcast. She made me laugh, think and reflect on business jargon and how absurd it can be.
I love her style of writing, her sharp mind and the humor. It was a sort of role model in approaching the language of the enterprise world and consultancy.
I was happy to read this ARC as I found all the characteristics I loved: humor, a sharp mind and a great dose of realism.
As I'm not so younger than the author I can say that what she wrote reflected some of my feelings and experience.
I decided to start a L&D certification two years ago (was the younger in my class) and I think I totally agree when she writes that you are not obsessed by career when you start something new later in your life.
I loved how she talks about getting old and accepting the changes of your body.
Her teaching experiences are really interesting and sometimes I thought i would have liked a teacher like her.
I read this book in two days and was totally involved in what I was reading.
It's heartfelt, gripping and thought provoking. It should be read by anyone who's over 50 and would like to change his/her life.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Vanessa M · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books where some snippets really resonate. Am i old? When is the deadline to reinvent yourself? Can you separate the periods between young old (still able to enjoy life) and old old ? Why people keep telling you 60 is the new 40 and brush aside the ageing process. How do you educate your children or your pupils. What is the purpose of teaching?. Inspiring or just helping kids to pass exams so they can move on. Is is ok to say that the only motivation for studying is to make money with a good job.
Lots of honest discussions, different from motivational books that just want to make you feel good.

[Daniil Lanovyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, it proves it's never too late to change one's life and learn something new.

[Chee Chee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This memoir is so well-written. There is not a wasted word, and she does a great job of looking thoughtfully at her life. It also opened my eyes to different ways of schooling, and gave me some new perspectives on age.

[Raph Zindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely witty and a highly enjoyable read!

[David Cutler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly admire teachers and I think the creation of Teach Next by the author is a good thing. And Kellaway is a fluent and talented writer after three decades writing for the FT.

So why did I spend the first third of this book frequently fuming and wanting to throw it against the wall?

Although Kellaway has the self-deprecating comment as her signature style, I found the setting up of her charity just reeking of access and privilege. Most people aren't life long friends with the CE of the largest chain of Academies, or can walk into the Bank of England to recruit a trustee, or have a personal meeting the Minister who says to a poor official 'get these people some money', or is pursued by a BCC radio producer to do a series about her re-invention as a teacher.

And she didn't have to become an investment banker immediately after university. I left Oxford the year afterwards and at the time graduates pursued a much broader range of careers than they do now.

However, the book does become interesting once she actually starts teaching. This includes her awakening to the levels of poverty and injustice her pupils face and the position of teachers from ethnic minorities.

I am afraid the truth of the matter is that I am not that interested in Lucy Kellaway's reinvention. Though she has more energy and determination than me. I thought of re-training at roughly her age and decided I didn't have it in me. I imagine that she is a very good teacher and her pupils will hopefully have many years of her to come.

[Laura Spira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Lucy Kellaway's journalism and was quite sad when she left the FT but could see that her plan to become a teacher was a worthwhile project and admired her for it. But I found this book to be very solipsistic - I suppose a memoir must be to some extent but this seemed excessive, especially at the end where she asks her nearest and nearest how they think the change in her life changed her.

i haven't taught in schools but after 30 years of teaching in further and higher education I had some sympathy with some of her experiences. I would have appreciated further reflection on broader issues in education but I know that just keeping the plates spinning from day to day distracts from that.

But I'm afraid I was deeply shocked by her account of disposing of her husband's surplus review copies of books in a skip. Who puts books in a skip? Couldn't they have gone to charity shops?

[Kristīne Spure · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a total surprise. FT columnist Lucy Kellaway’s story of changing her career in mid 50ies is so inspiring. First off, her writing flows so easily, the book reads like fiction (which is not surprising considering Kellaways’s 30+ years as a writer).

I loved her take on age, feminism, how age is perceived within women and men, career change, and life goals overall. Oh, and she made teaching sound like a wonderful adventure (so that’s a bit of a romanticized take, I’d say).

Yes, in a way, Lucy Kellaway was privileged to make changes in her career as a result of a stable financial situation (but to be fair, her career was her own doing, so is it privilege? More like hard work pays off). But still, this books feels like a must read for everyone who feels stuck and believes life ends at 40.

[Margaret McCulloch-Keeble · Rating 1 out of 5]

If someone, who is approaching retirement, gives up a well paid and slightly glam job to become a low paid teacher in a local school, in order to 'give' something back to society as well as for their own personal satisfaction, that's to be applauded. It's a brave and worthy thing. To only work part time, so you can still dip your toes in your previous job (and also because you already own your own home and therefore don't need to work unlike your poorer, younger colleagues) and to decide to start up a charitable business on the back of it and plug it by writing a book all about it, does rather strike me as vulgar somehow. I found it all rather arrogant and quite off putting.

[Clara Maine]

Hands down the most personally important book I read all year. Also the most cringe. Wild how those two things can come together.

The cover makes it look like bad self-help. The writing and humor feels dated, which is understandable since Lucy is an incorrigible boomer. Deeply liberal politics and a big fancy house and a lot to say about her divorce. I made so many sour faces at the humor in this book but I also secretly ate it up. It was light and easy and I enjoy remembering I’m a fast reader when I’m not trying to prove myself with smart literary word salad (I’m sorry Eileen i love you i am just also stupid).

I think it’s also special to me because it came to me by chance. I asked the clerk where I could find books on education and he said “Well, if you’re looking for educational philosophy like Dewey or Friere you can check over there with the general philosophy. Montessori I would put in the basement under Psychology.” I went to the basement. When I found this on the bottom shelf, a small consolation for the the devastating absence of Montessori, I thought the chances I’d actually finish it were low. I keep buying books I don’t read and reading books I don’t buy. But the description was compelling, and was in some way exactly what I need to know for my own future. What happens when someone with a comfy cucumber-water corporate job becomes a teacher? Now I know, and while I still don’t think that testing and fear and undue stress belong in education, reading this made everything a lot more complicated! The bookmark they gave me when I bought this says *“While an algorithm might suggest a book that we are likely to enjoy based upon who we’ve been, or what an advertiser might want us to think we want, nothing can replace the work of browsing to help us discover who are are or who we might become”* so true bestie.

The middle made me upset. Teacher training sounded like assimilation to an authoritarian structure. Giving kids detention for writing in the wrong pen color. Scolded for being “too excited” about what she was teaching. Any criticism of the system actively scorned. Students tracked, measured, surveilled, compared. Reprimanding parents with struggling kids. All of it a means to an end: good test scores. But who the fuck cares about good test scores? Who really wants any of this? How did the shallow quantification of something as complex as human learning and knowledge become so normal? So important? Why have we convinced ourselves it’s even necessary? Is it so hard to believe we couldn’t learn without it?

In “Just be happy, darling” she talks about her parents’ progressive view on education. She argues for the limitations of this approach for low-income kids, who lack the same safety net and social opportunities afforded to smart but aimless middle-class kids. Her own son was bad in school, failed his exams, and worked a minimum wage food service job until his family helped shepherd him into an engineering school and, having learned his lesson about why it’s important to do your homework, he graduated and makes engineering money now. She posits progressive education as a luxury for the middle classes within the current system we have. I would like to disagree with her but I’m not sure how… yet. If there’s one thing liberalism is good for it’s in saying something that sounds very reasonable and feels very wrong and prompting me to figure out why. Liberalism good for education? You heard it here first folks.

In the end she becomes my nightmare. A grades stickler. A teach-to-the-test, stick-to-the-curriculum overworked servant of the industrial classroom. What really haunts me is that she has good reasons. She wrote some surprisingly thoughtful reflections on her own privilege, racism, and the deeply unfair position of her students within the various systems they operate in. She doesn’t translate these reflections into a scathing critique of capitalism or the state or private property, she doesn’t use a very woke vocabulary, but the reflection is there. Operating within the deeply confined bounds of a school system, she identifies the action that will help her students have the best possible shot at a livable future for themselves. The action is: helping them get good test scores. If anything, these grades *exclusively* matter for students with no network or class privilege to help compensate for a few bad grades. And practically that means her job is extracting good exam scores from her students, not guiding them through a comprehensive or critical education. Is she wrong? Maybe! But maybe not! Must there be something else we can do? God, I hope so.

It was a disconcerting read. Never thought I’d find a horror story in a snarky memoir like this. But honestly, I have a bit more empathy for the test-sticklers in my own past. Maybe they have come to the same conclusions and remain in their shitty jobs doing harm reduction. Here’s to dreaming of a world where they don’t need to.

[John Oswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof that it's never too late to try something new! Lucy Kellaway, a career FT columnist, decides that it's time for some big changes, and launches herself into teaching. Not just her, for herself, but she goes an extra step and sets up an organisation to help people switch from corporate life into teaching. The great thing about this book though is how open and honest it is - many people switch careers; few then say just how incredibly hard and soul destroying it can be on a bad day (as well as life affirming on a [rarer] good day). Kellaway's self awareness is both amusing (I do love a good self deprecating anecdote) and quite emotional to observe. She's very open about just how naive some of her assumptions were, but clear headed about her own sense of commitment and willingness to keep on pushing. Some of the classroom anecdotes are downright scary and make you realise just what a vast commitment the teaching profession represents. For a time, I was a very junior academic teaching 1st and 2nd year students at university. Way less pressure than proper teaching, but even then, I remember the dread, the sense of responsibility, the astonishingly humbling way in which something a student says could pop your self importance. So kudos to Kellaway for laying all this bare and producing a book which is at the same time very funny and very of its time, as we all grow to appreciate that, all being well, we have much to contribute, even when conventional organisations and career paths see us as too old. We're all fitter for so much longer so why not lean into the idea of there being several phases of a career, even several careers within a life? At one point, Prof Lynda Gratton (she of the '100 year life') makes a small appearance. From theory to lived reality.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading Lucy Kellaway's snarky and spot-on FT columns and always looked forward to Monday's edition of FT and Martin Luke's latest nonsense. It wasn't surprising that I loved Re-educated, Kellaway's account of how she navigated the massive changes in her life (some self-initiated, others beyond her control) when she was in her 50s. In 2015, Kellaway moves from a large, terraced family home in Highbury to a modern house in Hackney, separating from (but not divorcing) her husband David Goodhart in the process; in May 2016 her father passes away and a month later, Kellaway decides she wants to become a maths teacher and also to set up a charity - her idea is to call it Teach Last - to encourage experienced professionals to switch to teaching as a career. In June 2017, just before she turns 58, Kellaway decides to stop dying her hair brown and to go grey.

As a columnist, Kellaway was often unsparing of her interviewees and turns her brutal frankness onto herself this time around. She describes how she fell into journalism for the lack of any better ideas for a job; she found she had a talent for making fun of things and enjoyed entertaining her readers and what sustained her was "a personality flaw that is common in journalists…I was both insecure and a show-off". She describes in detail her struggles to train as a teacher, from her struggles with the technology and software platforms, to how she has to reframe her understanding of what her duty as a teacher is to her students:

"Two years later, I have a clearer idea of what it is I'm trying to do. Changing lives turns out not to be about making instant transformations - it is about hard slog and tiny, incremental improvements. This realisation has changed my own life - or at least how I teach, and the sort of teacher I want to be. Before I started teaching I thought the best teachers were the ones who were incapable of dullness and who could inspire their students to think big. I was determined that my lessons would be an entertaining spectacle with me going at full throttle….To my delight, the first time I stood up in a classroom to teach economics I found being this flamboyant teacher was easy. Rogue comes naturally if you spent your whole life writing snarky newspaper columns. [But when one of her students comes up at the end of the lesson and starts to cry because she doesn't understand anything in class, Kellaway realises that] the best way of helping [her students] is not to try to make economics a fun show, it is to get [them] to pass [their] exam. If it is a teacher's job to open doors, those doors, under the present regime, are GCSEs."

How she comes to realise how homogenous her social circle was when she joins a "wide world where [she is] in a minority in almost everything: class, outlook, income, age, hair colour, and, most obviously, ethnicity". Kellaway learns how to pronounce names of students whose families hail from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, to scrub her speech of phrases that might be ok in a white, upper middle class setting but would cause deep offence in the mixed setting of London schools ("whiter than white", "black mark"). When judging a public speaking competition in Hackney, Kellaway is struck by the fact that all the Black female finalists speak about being disadvantaged by being young, Black and female. None of them talk about the issues white students talk about, like climate change, or the power and influence of corporations like Amazon.

Kellaway closes off the book by saying that this book was supposed to be about reinvention. But at the end of it, she's not sure she can say definitively that she's a fundamentally different person, job, hair, marital status and address aside. Instead, the way she decides to think about it is that:
"what has changed is not my character but my experiences. I am immersed in a new world that feels a long way from my old one. Though I've not been reinvented, what has happened is just as radical and a lot more interesting: I am being re-educated."

A brilliant read, perhaps even more so if you're becoming young-old as Kellaway describes herself.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my previous school, I worked with several fantastic Now Teach trainees, teachers who join the profession as a later in life career change. Engineers, journalists, academics, they have a huge wealth of life experience which makes them very different to your fresh-faced twenty something trainee, but no less valued. Due to this, I was fascinated to read Lucy Kellaway's account of not only founding Now Teach but training as a Maths teacher after over 3o years working as a columnist for the Financial Times.

Kellaway documents her changing her life completely: new job, separation from her husband, new house and a new hair cut. We follow her struggles in teacher training, shining a light on what a tough job it can be. Just because she was an incredibly successful journalist, it does not mean she will shine in a classroom with a bunch of disinterested teenagers. It is good to follow her journey and celebrate the small wins alongside her. However, it is incredibly disheartening to see the quality of mentoring in her training year though. (Who gives 23 EBIs for a trainee's first ever lesson?? I doubt anyone's first ever lesson was that great...)

Overall, I enjoyed this and it was a quick read. Ultimately, through, I would have liked slightly more focus on the heartwarming stories of students and their journeys. This is very much centred on Kellaway, but would certainly be inspiring for anyone wanting to find a reinvigorating purpose later in life. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Denyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book is explained on the front cover - Lucy Kellaway, the author, does exactly that!
A journalist for the Financial Times for a very long time, she decides to change her life and become a teacher in her fifties. She does indeed buy a house, separate from her husband, let her hair grow out grey and become a teacher.

I didn't know what to expect when I began reading this book, but it grew on me. Lucy has a light hearted, entertaining and pragmatic approach to her life, which makes for easy reading and it is easy to warm to her style of writing. At some points it made me laugh out loud, even though some of the subjects she writes about are thought provoking and also interesting.

She realises that teaching is a difficult and challenging profession, but she rises to the occasion admirably and is happy to share her failures and successes equally. She tells us about the complexities of dealing with a diverse range of students, and how she has to think of issues that she's never had to face before.

She considers how this change of circumstances may have affected her as a person, or not, by canvassing her friends and family for their opinions. Whether or not they feel she may or may not have changed, she eifinitely conveys that her decisions have made her more fulfilled and alive.

This is a good read for anyone who feels the need for a life change! It's uplifting and funny, and I enjoyed it very much.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started listening to Lucy Kellaway's podcast back in 2008 when she would make cynical and witty observations of finance and office culture and when I started a new job and needed to know more stuff about finance to look credible (basically mass imposter syndrome before I knew what it actually was!)

I always enjoyed her podcasts and I remember hearing an interview on Radio 4 that she'd retrained as a teacher in her late 50s and so when this popped up as a suggested read on audible it seemed like something that would be an interesting listen (especially as I have from time to time debated teaching as a career change)

Lucy's descriptions of the logistics of starting a career in teaching after a previous career were really insightful and both made me want to try it and definitely not want to try it at the same time. It is almost exactly the sort of book I would have expected her to write and was reassuring that there is scope to change your life whatever your age. She also was reassuringly not bitter about any aspect of the fact that she'd turned 60 and was actually quite insightful in a few statements along the lines of "Don't live every day as though it's your last, live as though you might have another 30 years to enjoy" which is actually quite a positive way to look at things.

I enjoyed hearing her read the book as it was delivered in the same schoolteacher esq voice that she used to do for her podcast so I wasn't at all surprised to find out that she ended up down this career path. A fun and quite positive book.

[Jaylen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read!

Lucy Kellaway's memoir of sorts was enjoyable for the most part. I think it was good that she was evaluating her situation and her ability to retrain as a teacher - if that discussion of privilege was omitted I would have been very annoyed!

I found the day in the life of a teacher to be most interesting section as I'd like to go into teaching, I really enjoyed having that little glimpse into her day to day life.

I liked how honest the book was as well. Yes, it did feel like the second half was a whistle-stop tour of the many ills plaguing teaching today (covid, damaging effects of racism, class, gender to name a few) but Kellaway touches on these topics with some insight. Unsure of their impact since they are spoken about so quickly. Her writing however was compelling and I enjoyed hearing her thoughts.

Kellaway has written a book that is not for everyone - I can certainly see NQTs and young people looking into teaching becoming frustrated by this book. Kellaway however is simply telling her story, so can we fault her for that?

For anyone looking for a memoir type book that touches on deeper issues rife within education, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy may be more up your alley!

Overall a good read, a book can't be faulted for what it is not!

3.75 Stars

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't aware of Lucy Kellaway before picking up this book. The title intrigued me as I have recently undergone big changes myself in terms of relationship, home and career (hair not so much). Although I'm a younger generation than Lucy, and from a (seemingly) less privileged background, her story really resonated with me.

As a former Financial Terms columnist, Kellaway is an excellent writer and each chapter has a clear purpose and topic. Her approach to life is inspirational and shows even as you reach your late 50s/60s, it's not too early to start again and change your life path. Aside from her life just being extremely interesting, Kellaway retrains as a teacher - taking a huge pay cut in the process - and starts up the organisation Teach Now. As a sibling to Teach First, Teach Now encourages experienced workers to change careers later in life to become teachers and share their skills and experience with students.

Overall this was a truly lovely, inspiring and interesting book. It's quite a quick read but I feel like that's perhaps indicative of Kellaways no-nonsense style and I liked it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt strangely personal. I used to read the Martin Lukes column that Lucy Kellaway wrote in the '00s when I was working in publishing just down the road from the FT. When her Hackney house was up for sale I briefly imagined living there myself (the listing price was astonishingly high) and now my teenager is doing further maths as a weekend subject at a Hackney Academy so asked her on the off-chance Ms Kellaway was her teacher there, to be told that she actually taught economics at her regular Academy, all the students loved her, but now she's left and surely I'd seen her Ted Talk. I also work at the financial institution that Lucy Kellaway started out at (I quite like it though). Anyway, all this meant the references were very familiar and I found it a terrific and relatable read. Passionate and self-deprecating and a really inspirational journey, regardless of your stage in life. Would never become a teacher myself so am equally bewildered and impressed by the people that retrain to do this in later life. More power to Lucy Kellaway for starting her initiative and I hope people get inspired after reading this book to apply to Teach Now.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a journalist, this is a well described story of a woman making major changes in her life at a time when most of us would just be considering coasting into retirement. Ms Kellaway left her well paid job, her husband, and her home to start again as a teacher. Her journey is admirable and she certainly has courage and character. But I felt the book didn’t really look deeply enough at the problems encountered by teachers. Especially those who join the profession in later life.

Ms Kellaway had money and a secure environment which is more than many of her students. And she definitely developed an affinity for the young people in her care. It was interesting how at the end of the book, she sent a questionnaire to family and friends asking about how she had changed and the responses were predominantly that she hadn’t changed that much.

A brave, honest look at crisis and self discovery and the need to feel needed.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even if I did find myself regularly asking my kindle to provide a definition of some of the words. The author was a previous writer for the FT and I left this explained the wide use of vocabulary.

She has written about her own life and the changes she made. This was very interesting reading and provides inspiration that to those thinking of a new career path. It is refreshing that the author acknowledges her privilege and wonderful that she is continually prepared to learn/adapt around subjects such as racism.

This was a book I wanted to keep turning the pages on to find out more about the ladies life and also how she got on when she started teaching and how this progressed.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. As a primary teacher and former Ark employee it was lovely to reminisce about my time at an Ark school. I love Lucy’s bravery and decisions she’s chosen to make in her life.
I would agree with other reviews in so much that, Lucy was clearly in a strong financial decision to go into teaching from leaving the FT. If was able to, I too would chose to teach for 3 days out of 5. It’s an exhausting job which takes up my evenings and at least one day of the weekend. I wish that teaching afforded you with a good work life balance, but it really doesn’t. Nonetheless, if you’re in a position to give teaching your everything, then absolutely, I think teaching will be the most fulfilled I’ll ever feel in a job in terms of job satisfaction. But for now… I’ll remain burnt out and skint. Great read though.