Primary Instinct

In his second novel, satirist David Reiter does for the Australian education system what the BBC series Teachers did for the British system.


Like every primary teacher, Cherry Kaufman had her ideals—once. You put in the hours, get the degree and hope your first job isn’t a five hour drive west of Blackbutt. She knew it wouldn’t all be long summer breaks and the adoration of grateful parents. But nothing prepared her for the “challenges” of teaching at Bayside State School, not to mention what her colleagues would get up to after school hours...

A humourous exposé of the education system, with a serious undercurrent.

David Reiter is an award-winning poet and writer of fiction, His fourth book, Hemingway in Spain, was shortlisted for the 1998 Adelaide Festival Awards. His previous fiction includes Triangles, which was shortlisted for the 2000 Steele Rudd Award, Sharpened Knife, a multimedia murder mystery, and his café society satire Liars and Lovers. His chapter book series for kids eis ntitled Project Earthmend, with The Greenhouse Effect published by Lothian Books (Hachette-Livre) in 2004 and Global Cooling (IP Kidz, 2008). Real Guns, a children’s picture book, was illustrated by Irish artist Patrick Murphy, and a multimedia CD anthology. 


David has been writer-in-residence at a number of places, most recently Bundanon (the Arthur Boyd property), and in Auckland, New Zealand at the Michael King Centre during February-March 2008, where this novel was completed.