Spondon House School

". . .written by Bryan Smith about his teacher in the 1950s."
Er, no. Bryan did not write this little pen portrait of a woman who was our form teacher for a couple of years. I did. He "lifted" what I wrote from the Guardian, where I was a regular contributor to the Comments page. 'Elbowgrease' was my pseudonym. No hard feelings, Bryan. It is gratifying to see my humble tribute has reached a wider audience than originally intended. But if Phyllis were still around, she might be tempted to rap your knuckles!