1988 saw the passing at an early age of Rex Beddis, who was the GA's Publications officer for some years, and also worked on books that will be familiar to many geography teachers. He was also a teacher himself, at the Elliott School.
One of his most popular book series was A Sense of Place.
This involved 3 books and accompanying workbooks and teacher guide - a feature which became common with Key Geography, Geog Dot and other series, right up to the present day.
From the description:
* Presents a number of ideas through a range of data - text, photographs, drawings, diagrams, statistics and maps
* Encourages students to form opinion through feelings and values as well as evidence
* Develops a wide range of skills
* Helps students to look at the future as well as understand the present
When I posted a picture of the first book, it prompted lots of memories from people who had the books, used the books, bought the books for their department, and many who still have their copies of the books, or inherited them when they moved to a new school. They include David Gardner, who has been associated with the GA for many years, and may get his own blog post in due course.
References
Storm, Michael. “The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 73, no. 3, 1988, pp. 268–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571429. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.
I came to know Rex at Oxford in the fifties and he remained a close friend until his sad passing. He was best man at my wedding in 1964. I like to think I inspired him to write textbooks as I recall him saying when he visited me in Khartoum in 1960 and seeing the draft of a book I had written (Certificate English Course, University of London Press) 'If you can write a book, I must be able to write one too.' When I saw him for the last time a week before he died he was in bed at his beautiful house in Bath, working with colleagues on a book. Rex was one of the kindest and most genuine people I have ever known.
ReplyDeleteI am very grateful to you for taking the time to reply and give me your memories of Rex. His publications certainly found their way into the hands of many thousands of young geographers, including myself.
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