In 1977 Wayne Furlong, fresh out of university, finds himself in a job for which he is not equipped - English teacher in a tough all-boys secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. He has no learning theory, no confidence and no understanding of the people he is about to teach. He faces a world of binge-drinkers and dope-smokers, of old-school thugs and hippies, of loud music and violence. And that's just the staffroom. For the next forty years, in...