Julian Clary is just a one-joke camp comedian, right?
Wrong. He is in fact a much misunderstood comic, writes Dan Carrier

JULIAN Clary was close to death. His lungs had packed up and the only way to save him was a double transplant – something that no doctor had ever attempted and no patient had ever survived. But after hours in surgery and weeks recuperating, the nine-year-old pulled through.
But there was a problem.
He had been given a set of lungs taken from a little girl, and it made him speak in what his classmates called a girlie way. He was bullied incessantly – and so told them a lie about a major operation as an excuse as to why he had a squeaky tone in the hope he would be left alone.

Dramatic educational reform is being carried out without a proper debate, says a north London school’s chair of governers Penny Wild

THIS collection of essays, written as a tribute to the long years of campaigning for comprehensive schools by Caroline Benn, the wife of the veteran politician Tony, makes sobering reading in the context of the General Election.
Although differing in subject matter and scope, the 17 essays give an indication of the arguments, educational experiences and social demands which have driven the development of comprehensive schools.
They outline the history of non-selective education and its long battle for acceptance, covering professional concerns within the system; admissions; academic achievements, and international comparisons.