Mark's Out of Eleven

It's September 1960. Mark Barker has passed his eleven-plus and has followed his brother into Parkside Grammar School for boys. Having two sons at a Grammar School places a huge burden on his working class family and he is already wearing his brother's hand-me-down blazer, while all around him are wearing brand new uniforms.
The Headmaster at Parkside likes to run the school with an iron discipline and frequently punishes miscreants with the cane, putting a tremendous fear into this sensitive young boy. The pupils also fear Mr Tucker, the evil Sports Master who is not aversed to physical violence to instil discipline.
Having been split from his old primary school friends, Mark now seeks to forge new friendships and is reasonably successful, but he is unable to shake off the annoying Jarvis who is forever trying to crack silly jokes. He gets Mark into bother with his strict Form Master when he passes him pictures of nude ladies. Mark also receives his first detention when Jarvis snitches on him.
At first, Mark is pleased that there are no girls at his school, but when puberty strikes, he finds himself discovering new sensations. His encounters with girls are few and far between, but when they occur, it leaves him perturbed and frustrated. However, if encounters with the opposite sex cause him anguish, those with the same sex confuse him even further. His new softly-spoken friend Lenny talks in sexual innuendos and when Mark discovers the truth about Lenny and his friend Toots, he has to tackle his prejudices head on.

Will Stebbings is rapidly gaining critical acclaim for his insightful novels, encapsulating nostalgia for the sixties and seventies, whilst adding a fair smattering of humour. His first novel 'Off the Mark' received so many plaudits that he felt compelled to write 'Further Off the Mark' which continues the rites of passage for its main character, Mark Barker, who left an all-boys' school with no experience of girls or the adult world in general. 'Completely Off the Mark' is about Mark's further exploits in the early 1970s, while 'Mark's Out of Eleven' takes us back to 1960 and his days at an all boys' Grammar School, when educational institutions were as much about discipline as they were education.
'Tess of the Dormobiles' is a comedy thriller and is not part of the Mark Barker quadrilogy, being set firmly in the 21st century and featuring a female lead character.
Will's love of soul music features heavily in his work, where he often used sixties and seventies soul records as the chapter titles.
All of Will's novels are set predominately in Norfolk, which is where he was born and raised.