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six-day residential visit

The novel covers the six days of a residential school visit to the Rhineland, opening with the boarding of the bus and closing with disembarkation upon return. The central character, Heather Lawrence, who has only recently joined the school, previously having lived in Hong Kong, has been accustomed to adult company and has an outlook beyond her years. As the bus sets out with 45 school students and 6 adults plus driver, she feels — and is — out of place alongside her new classmates, whose behaviour is clearly deficient but quite typical for an English comprehensive school.

getting to know everybody

Initially Heather knows only eight classmates; by the end of the trip she will know more or less everyone. Subsequent episodes introduce many more of the trip's participants and reveal the distinct personalities of the individuals, which are portrayed with realism and sympathy distilled from the author's close observation of teachers and students over a lengthy period.

“Being together with forty-something other people twenty-four hours a day, often in a confined space, all week, was very good for you in some ways — brilliant for getting to know everybody — but was terribly claustrophobic, and made you very inward-looking… and could make you lose your sense of proportion…”

bereavement and lost home

Heather wishes she could get off the bus, not least because she is concerned about leaving her mother, who has been ill following a bereavement earlier that year. As the bus speeds through the night heading for the channel port and beyond it France, Belgium and Germany, Heather thinks nostalgically of the home they have lost in Hong Kong.

anecdotes from real life

The plot is fictitious; some important events had to be made up. Nonetheless, ‘The German Trip’ abounds with real-life anecdotes: outstanding incidents (amazing, shocking, humorous, pathetic) have been sifted from a dozen or more foreign trips accompanied by the author. These many ‘stories within a story’ serve to illustrate character and further the plot, and yet the course of events is ultimately driven by the characters. Documentary, farce, love story or tale of intrigue and adventure? ‘The German Trip’ is all of these. And more.

fictitious people

What about the characters? All of the young people, with the one exception of the central character, are entirely imaginary. So unless you have been told that you are that one person who initially provided inspiration for the story (identity withheld), sorry, you won't be able to find yourself. Concerning the adults, there is however some borrowing from real life. There really is a German lady called Beate, long-term friend of the writer, and she really did get up very early to travel from Darmstadt to the Rhineland, arriving before 8am, to spend the day with the group. In addition, Mr and Mrs Smith also bear some resemblance to people we know (the story about the European Cup is true) but all the other teachers are fictitious.

ubiquitous

The book is the product of copious experience: the ubiquitous Margaret Swift took part in many school trips to Germany, accompanying numerous groups to Düsseldorf, the Rhineland or Gedling's twin town of Rotenburg an der Fulda, as well as setting up exchanges for college students from Derby with Alsfeld in Hessen and Schmalkalden in Thuringia. This is the same Margaret Swift who taught at Carlton Girls' School and Redhill School in Nottingham, Derby College Wilmorton and elsewhere (including Kingston upon Hull). And yes, Margaret Swift has been to Hong Kong.

the book launch

‘The German Trip’ was launched at midday on Saturday October 13^th 2007 at Woodthorpe Branch Library, Wensley Road, Nottingham, the Library Service kindly making the premises available from 11 till 2. Visitors were welcomed with a glass of alcohol-free fizzy beverage, there being no licence. ‘The German Trip’ contains experiences which were shared by numbers of people living in the Nottingham area and not surprisingly rather a large proportion of the visitors were either teachers who had been involved in organizing a trip or young people who had benefited from going on one. All enjoyed the opportunity to get together and reminisce.

At twelve noon Robert Swift MBA, who has himself been on several German trips, opened the proceedings on behalf of Cockasnook Books and introduced the writer Margaret Swift. To shed light on the state of modern publishing, Robert drew an analogy with football and the premier league, in particular the top four teams whose squads amount to no more than 100 players. In the world of books, no more than 100 writers fill all the shelves at the airport bookstalls. And with books it's even harder to break into the top 100 because, while it's difficult enough to get into the premier league, in publishing you have to make it straight into the premier premier league. New strategies are called for: these are being made possible by the Internet.

Robert passed the floor to guest speaker Councillor Dr Chris Pratt, former chair of governors at an East Midlands school and parent of at least one young person who participated in a German trip with Margaret and her husband. Chris admitted he had been delighted to get his hands on his copy, having wondered for a long time what on earth everyone got up to on these trips. No one else had been prepared to tell him. He said he had found the book very readable and now felt that he understood the dangers and the problems of such an undertaking — and the excitement — as well as the lasting and immeasurable benefits.

Margaret enjoyed signing copies of ‘The German Trip’ for readers and seeing old friends, though feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the unexpected bouquets and accolades. After the launch, family and friends enjoyed a lunch together at Margaret's home.

no iPods

The German Trip is based on a series of experiences which took place in the 1980s and 1990s. You will observe that the pupils have no mobile phones and certainly no iPods and — horror of horrors — that they need ‘films’ for their cameras! Today's fashion-conscious children may find this too much to bear, but we're not going to put these latter-day gadgets in just for the sake of it, not merely because it would wreak havoc with the plot: if they all had mobiles, how could the hero and the heroine hope to get ‘lost’ together, even for five minutes?

a time warp

The German Trip is as locked in a time warp as Tom Sawyer or Jane Eyre (and nobody's saying they should be given mobile phones). But it's not just about technology. The German Trip is set in a different era, an age when teachers were rather more inclined to take children on trips abroad, when they did still as a matter of routine attempt to involve children in activities such as the ‘Mister Koblenz’ and ‘Miss Koblenz’ competitions, and would still expect them to listen attentively to a guide with imperfect English during a long visit.

nostalgia

Although The German Trip was conceived essentially as an exciting novel for young people, there is no doubt that reading it would provide a stunning piece of nostalgia for many adults: it can be enjoyed by all who are young at heart.

the cover

The cover illustration is the work of young Nottingham artist William Hausmann. William has been on many German trips, so we knew he would have the right idea. He has chosen to use a Japanese cartoon technique called Anime which he says is very popular with the younger generation.