Set in the mid-seventies, long before mobile phones and emails were part of everyday communication, One Degree Over follows the amusing and often unconventional exploits of Robert Kiddecott, a farmer’s son from Devon, and his folk-singing friend, Jacob Moses, through the year following the completion of their B.Ed. degree course at a fictional teacher training college in mid-Wales. Jake is taking a year’s sabbatical as the newly elected president of the Students’ Union while Rob has started his teaching career at a mixed grammar school in a nearby town.
Whatever creditable scheme Jake turns his hand to, the consequences are usually hilarious or bizarre, while Rob’s relationships with female friends and colleagues take some unexpected turns. An old Ford Popular and a baby Fiat 500 add a critical role in the action.
Rob and Jake first appeared in the novel, A Matter of Degree (published 2011). Several other characters again feature in this sequel, which also sees a revival of the college morris dancing group.