First Class by 44-year-old John Mower, who is a the senior lecturer in Education at The University of Hertfordshire, follows the experiences of 22-year-old Adrian Gray in his first teaching role.

Mr Mower, a father of two and a former Cavendish School pupil, was a teacher for 19 years, working at Boxmoor primary School, Kings Langley School and Redbourn School.

Today he works with the university to attract and retain male school teachers, which statistics show only account for 13 per cent of primary teachers.

"I wanted to to say something positive about education and to also show that teachers are ordinary human beings. First Class is a warts 'n' all story about being a teacher," explained John.

"Written in the first person, the story looks at an awful lot of Adrian's thoughts and feelings about teaching and whether it is the right job for him. There are examples of how the children respond to him as a man and there are his first parents' evenings and Ofsted inspection. Adrian is fresh out of college and immature, which lends to humorous reading."

Although John's first aim with the novel was to write a comic story, at the University of Hertfordshire he has been supporting its activities in attracting men into primary education.

He said: "Our intake of males on the teacher training course is increasing and is currently well over 10 per cent, which I believe is because The University takes an active role in encouraging men."

John will speak at the Recruiting Men Into Education conference in Derby later in the year.

First Class is published by The University of Hertfordshire Press and is available from Waterstones and The University of Hertfordshire.