The Teaching and Support Staff
The Support Staff
Mrs. Vi Adair. Chief Executive Officer of the Quantock Administration Bureau was the unforgettable Vi Adair, who sometimes doubled as Chief of the Laundry Operations Unit. Although she sometimes was assisted in her day-to-day role by both Mrs. James and Mr. Shepherd, Vi virtually controlled the day-to-day functions of the school. Vi was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive croaky voice, which many pupils often tried to emulate. Curiously, Vi was the only member of staff (apart perhaps from the porter Dougie Baker) who was known almost exclusively by her Christian name.
Mrs. Pauline James. Mrs. James was in reality Vi's administrative assistant, but as part of this role she was the official Quantock School librarian. One could only feel genuine sympathy with her being placed in this role, as the library was, to be honest, rather dismal - with the head choosing to keep the best books in his study, more for their own protection than out of selfishness. In fact, most of the books were aeons old, adorned with graffiti, or both. The only time I ever saw Mrs. James perform her duties as librarian was when I wanted to borrow a book that had no ticket. Her response to this logistical problem was to remove a ticket from another book, tipp-ex out the details and replace them with those of the book I wanted to borrow. Truly Quantockian.
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