PD Smith

Reasons for writing

08 April 2014 | City | Post a comment

As an author, there is noth­ing bet­ter than find­ing an email like this in your inbox:

“I bought your book City a cou­ple of years ago and real­ly enjoyed it. I am a high school teacher, spe­cial­is­ing in geog­ra­phy and urban geog­ra­phy. I have been inspired by your book to re-cre­ate our rather tired urban geog­ra­phy unit, with a move away from a functional/chronological to a more nar­ra­tive teach­ing approach. I am loose­ly bas­ing the struc­ture of the first 7–8 lessons on the chap­ters of your book with a view to both cre­at­ing a deep­er under­stand­ing of the urban envi­ron­ment as well as engag­ing and inspir­ing the stu­dents with sto­ries about some amaz­ing places — much the same as you do in your book.

Real­ly, I guess I am writ­ing this to thank you for inspir­ing me to try hard­er to inspire my kids.”

Neville Gibbs
Wait­akere Col­lege, Auck­land, New Zealand

Com­ments like that make all the hard work of writ­ing and research worth­while. Thanks Neville!

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