Gabbie Stroud In-Conversation with Heather McNab

A powerful and moving debut novel about a school community in crisis from the bestselling author of Teacher.

The staff of St Margaret's Primary School are hanging by a thread. There's serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration, and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they're trying to remain professional, as people they're fast unravelling.

There's Tyson, first year out of uni and nervous as hell, Derek the Assistant Principal who's dropped the ball on administration, Bev from the office who's confronting a serious diagnosis, and Sally-Ann who's desperate for a child of her own.

Thank goodness for kids like Lionel Merrick. Lionel is the student who steals your heart and makes the whole teaching gig worthwhile: he's cheerful, likeable and helpful - and devoted to his little sister Lacey. But Lionel has a secret of his own. As his future slides from vulnerable to dangerous, will someone from St Margaret's realise before it's too late?

As secrets threaten to be exposed and working demands increase, each staff member begins to lose sight of the things that matter most.

Gabbie Stroud is a freelance writer and novelist and recovering teacher. After years of juggling the demands of the primary classroom, she made the painful decision to leave the profession she had loved. In 2016, her critical commentary of Australia's education system was published in Griffith Review's Edition 51 Fixing the System, which went on to be shortlisted for a Walkley Award. Gabbie's smash-hit memoir Teacher was shortlisted for Biography Book of the Year at the 2018 ABIA Awards and continues to contribute to the national dialogue on education. In 2020 her book, Dear Parents, offered a passionate call to arms for all parents. Gabbie's first novel, Young Adult fiction Measuring Up was published by Scribe in 2009. The Things That Matter Most is her debut fiction for adults. Gabbie lives on Yuin Nation on the far south coast of New South Wales with her totally awesome daughters, Olivia and Sophie.

Heather McNab's first job was in a library, where she got fired for stealing a Diet Coke from the fridge. She went on to work as a journalist and political staffer for almost a decade and now works for a not-for-profit helping young people to elevate their voices through the media. Out of hours you’ll find her consuming an unhealthy amount of pop culture, mainlining the news, and running her bookstagram @sisterhoodofthetravellingrants with two of her friends.