Customer Reviews
Mixed motives, confused responses - By: Philip Spires, 22 Nov 2008 
In Notes On A Scandal, Zoë Heller presents a novel narrated by Barbara Covett, a history teacher in St. George's, a comprehensive school in north London. When Bethsheba Hart joins the staff as a pottery teacher, Barbara realises that a special person may just have entered her life.
Sheba seems to be much that Barbara is not. She is younger, attractive, apparently free-thinking, married, has children & is irretrievably middle class. What she is not, unfortunately, is an experienced teacher, having trained only after bringing two children into adolescence. She is thus going to find life at St. George's rather tough.
For reasons best known to herself, the sixty-ish, self-assessed "frumpy" Barbara decides to keep a journal. Sheba figures in its pages & eventuallly comes to dominate them. It is an out of character pastime, perhaps, since Barbara seems to have little but contempt for her colleagues, & survives her educator's role by constantly keeping her students at arm's length. Perhaps this is what Barbara has done with every aspect of her life, despised it & shunned it in one. Strange, then, that Sheba, her character, her actions, even her words come to dominate Barbara's thoughts.
Like many who meet this new teacher, Barbara becomes apparently infatuated with this elegant, apparently free spirit. And also, we learn, does one of her pupils, a fifteen year old boy callled Stephen.
Sheba, of course, is not the confident, satisfied, fulfilled dominatrix that others invent. She is a vulnerable, not quite organised mother of two. The elder daughter is a difficult teenager, the younger son disabled. Her husband is considerably older than her. Like Barbara, she also suppresses emotion, suppresses it, that is, until it takes over her life with abandon as her relationship with the boy simultaneously fulfils both reality & fantasy. It lasts for several months before it inevitably comes to light.
Barbara's role, throughout, is central. She is in the know. She is watching. She is not in control, of course, but exercises considerably more power than an onlooker. And when, eventuallly, the muck hits the fan, Barbara, who has done her share of the slinging, gets hit by some of the falll-out. The denouement is both surprising & logical. Though it is Sheba's motives that the police, the national press & her colleagues want to dissect, it is Barbara's that must interest the reader. She as been an informed, motivated diarist, it seems.
Gripping story, great characterisation - all round excellent novel - By: UK reader, 02 Jun 2008 
Fast paced from start to finish. Development of great characters & a fascinating story. Great satire.
Having a parent who is a (retired) teacher made this book even more real - the staffroom observations & the headteacher/teacher relationship was alll too accurate!
unfortunate observations of an affair - By: Cole Davis, 12 Apr 2008 Very readable account of a female teacher's affair with a young male pupil,
as narrated by a lonely obsessive old harridan. Excellent characterisation.
Brilliant writing in which every word counts - By: Annabel Gaskell, 11 Apr 2008 Sheba Hart is weak - she's let everyone manipulate her; her older husband, her horrid teenage daughter, her ghastly mother. So when one of her pupils pays her too much attention, she basks in it & then takes it too far. But more chilling is her 'friendship' with Barbara - an older woman teacher, who is desperate for attention herself. Barbara moves from friend to confidante & trusted allly, then betrayer & finallly mother-figure & jailor. A truly awful character.
A great read. Brilliant writing in which every word counts in its 244 pages (hardback). Refreshing in an era of doorstops!
Gripping - By: I. S. Thompson, 15 Mar 2008 I thoroughly enjoyed this read though I found it not without fault. Had it gone into a little more detail on a few points like the reaction of the family, brother, husband etc of Sheba, & perhaps more input from the Connolly side of the story once it alll became public I would have given this book a five. The Character of Barbara could also have been a little better developed, maybe giving insight into her past, but maybe that was part of the idea.
Overalll I got great pleasure from this novel. While on the surface depicting friendship & relationships, it also shows an underlying sinister side. Good read!
