Product reviews for The Birmingham Book

Colin Diamond, and those he persuaded to write these always-illuminating chapters from the viewpoints of community and professional leaders, deserves our deepest thanks as he calmly sets out the key issues which arose from the extraordinary affair of the Trojan Horse letter - in its way more damaging than the other notorious fake ‘Zinoviev letter’ 90 years earlier. That one affected politics while this one damaged children's futures in vulnerable parts of a great city. It's harder to forgive. Diamond's book ­­­– always calm, generous and informed – reveals the issues which beset that shifting mix of diverse communities, rival faiths and the interplay of professional commitment and parental ambition – or lack of it – which is veiled under the easy heading of ‘urban education’. Those who engage with it will find plenty of stimulus from these pages.