WEEKEND READING: ‘There’s no point wishin’ fo’ owt’’: What can we learn from Danny Scott’s 2025 book, The Undisputed King of Selston, about widening access to higher – indeed to any – education?

This blog was kindly authored by Lucy Haire, Director of Sector Engagement, UPP.

Before becoming the author of the recently published The Undisputed King of Selston, Danny Scott grew up in an East Midlands mining village, serving his apprenticeship as an engineer on leaving school, before moving to London in the 1980s. After a job in counter (industrial) espionage, he became a private investigator, then a painter and decorator, then an engineer again, before becoming a journalist and interviewing people like Sir Paul McCartney, Mikhail Gorbachev, Usain Bolt and Dave Hill from Slade.

The ‘Clever Bugger’ and the mining belt

While the book is primarily about the culture of his mining community and the dynamics of his family, education is discussed within it at some length. Ideas about what limits educational opportunities are brought to life through vivid scenes and characters, which can easily bring a tear to your eye, yet are also somehow devoid of a sense of victimhood.   

The mother of all barriers

Danny absolutely loved his first primary school, Selston Church of England Infants’ School, where he excelled and won prizes. But this ‘Clever Bugger’ drew the attention of one or two school bullies, like ‘Sadistic-Bus-Stop’  and later, at Baghrope Primary School, Mark ‘Grovey’ Musgrove, who would mete out sufficient taunting and violence that it was worth Danny taking a very circuitous route to school to avoid an encounter. Danny also meticulously planned, executed and got away with a judo-inspired counter-attack in the school yard.

Perhaps most shockingly, however, was the relentless contempt his own mother showed for her son’s achievements, with phrases like,

‘Ah left school at fourteen an’ when t’ service. Ah canna read ‘n’ write, burr it nivver did may any ‘arm’.

In response to Danny’s prize for spelling, she said,

‘Wot d’ yuh want t’ be like that for? Answerin’ questions ‘an’ showin’ off all o’ time.’    

‘Maybe university’: the weight of teacher expectations 

On his last day at Bagthorpe Primary School, the teacher, Mr Hallet, wandered round the class pointing at pupils and predicting their futures. He shouted ‘university’ for some bright pupils, but when he arrived at Danny, he said, ‘maybe university’. Our author had previously been asked if he wanted to sit the Eleven-Plus exam, which could lead to a place at grammar school in Nottingham, but his mum stamped on the idea with her usual care and aplomb, ‘Ow y’ goona get t’Nottin’ham every day? Ooh’s goona pay forritt?’ while dad remained silent.

Escaping the ‘drip-drip’ of chaos

So to the Matthew Holland Comprehensive School it was, where Danny revelled at the books he could borrow from the linked public library and where he remained a ‘Clever Bugger’ in the top sets. He was not above taking the mickey out of those in the ‘remedial’ group. He gravitated towards friends whose calm houses he could visit, even stay at, to escape his own home which was characterised by the ‘drip-drip of low-key chaos’. We are aware by now that his mum was blind but completely in denial about it, while his dad did everything he could to build a relationship with his son despite his long shifts down the pit and steadily failing health.  

A heritage of struggle: from D.H. Lawrence to 1984

The hero behind the name of Danny’s secondary school, Matthew Holland, had been a miner who agitated to the point where he lost his job. He then campaigned for better schooling for the underprivileged and also championed the Workers’ Education Association, rising through the ranks to become chair of the Nottinghamshire County Education Committee. The other local hero was D. H. Lawrence who also came from a mining family but won a scholarship to a ‘posh school. Somebody stumped up the money that allowed him to learn!’ 

The ‘no lament’ paradox

Mr Hall, a teacher at Matthew Holland School tried to persuade Danny’s parents to let him stay on at Sixth Form, but Danny’s mum was having none of it. He then introduced Danny to Kev Patterson, a draughtsman at a local engineering firm, who talked about his own dad declining promotion and remaining at the coalface all his life for fear of being ostracised by his friends and community.

Danny achieved excellent O Level results and his dad lined him up with an interview to be an apprentice engineer for the coal board. However, at the interview, the foreman explained that all new apprenticeships had been cancelled that year owing to the anticipated strike action by the miners and the news that many pits were deemed uneconomical. Making good use of the library and a friend’s address for correspondence – Danny was living itinerantly by now – he passed a local engineering firm’s IQ test with flying colours and started as an apprentice.

In the book, Danny discusses at length what he felt about not being able to stay on at Sixth Form or have a crack higher education. I anticipated some sort of lament here – but Danny racked his brains so that he could be true to his feelings of more than four decades ago and concluded that there was no lingering sense of disappointment. 

Scaling Opportunities: where policy meets the pit

I read Scott’s book alongside Charlotte Gleed and Charlotte Armstrong’s Scaling Opportunities published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), and the two make perfect companions. Scott’s book is all about the character, culture and emotions of a bright young person whose odds of progressing to further, let alone higher education, are slim. The HEPI report provides the statistics and analytical framing for low higher education participation rates. There were one or two individuals, like teachers and librarians, who tried to provide opportunities for Danny to go further in education, but seemingly no systematic interventions of the type that Gleed and Armstrong recommend. What would have happened if Danny’s parents – especially his beleaguered mother – had been the recipient of ‘long-term engagement’ from educational professionals? While Danny’s mother is a relatively extreme example, she reminded me of some of the survey findings and comments made in the focus groups that the UPP Foundation conducted as part of its Widening Participation Inquiry last year about higher education not being an aspiration for some.    

Scott’s book reinforces just how powerful cultures made up of school bullies; teachers spouting careless words; communities with really tough lives; and exhausted and disabled parents can be in holding the next generation back. In this context, even the best laid scaling opportunity plans are up against it. And the book reminds us too – as autobiographies are want to do – of the roles of personal resilience and serendipity in where life takes us. 

Conclusion: the power of the clean break

In the end, Danny escapes Nottinghamshire and gets to London through wit and drive. I learned from a podcast interview how important a step this was for him, and he is not alone in appreciating the chance to leave his hometown. Opportunities to relocate, to reinvent yourself, connect with new people and ideas, and to find and follow your passions resonate with me too. For people in closed communities like Selston, the physical act of moving away to university can be the best, and sometimes the only way, to break free. I am proud to represent UPP – a provider of on-campus student accommodation in partnership with 14 learning UK universities – which provides a stepping stone for many looking for their new chapter. The chance to go further, forge new paths and live in a different environment is an undeniable foundation for future success.

1970s Selston and a small number of modern-day focus-groups in Doncaster provide but a snapshot of views about education and are not the whole picture of course. My own grandmother hailed from Doncaster and packed fireworks for a living, yet she was keen for her daughters to do the best they could in further and higher education, for example. But negativity is strongly felt in pockets and the higher education sector cannot ignore this.