Home Affairs

English As A Funny Language

Home Affairs takes place ten years after Foreign Affairs, in 1982. It’s a crisis point for language schools. The Iranian revolution left many with unpaid fees. Argentina has just invaded The Falklands and Britain is not that popular in Latin America.

World English Centre (see Foreign Affairs ) is still in business, and Malcolm O’Reilly still runs the place, but Barry Grant and his Italian wife, Gabriella, have opened English Teaching Co-operative just down the road, at a fraction of WEC’s prices. They’re operating on a shoestring. The boom days have gone. Dave is the old hand working with them. Dave has taught in many countries and loathes all of them. Add a love affair between an Iranian girl and an Argentinian lad and you get chaos. Meanwhile Dave is trying to take a part-time teaching qualification at the college where he meets ex-Roedean girl,  Roberta.

Mansour, a slightly retarded son of an Iranian general, has been stranded by the revolution and works for Barry as a (useless) general assistant. Who’s the man in a raincoat from Iran asking all the suspicious questions? Is Mansour in danger?

The vultures are gathering. Local property developers are casting greedy eyes on World English Centre’s extensive premises and enlist Cosser Grce-Pitleigh to help them. Cosser has deserted teaching to become an Estate Agent. He’s also married.  Cosser persuades the tetchy Graham Donaldson, now the world famous and wealthy author of Intercourse to join a consortium to take over WEC. Graham has no idea about the consortium’s intentions.

The trouble is all sorts of things are brewing among the developers and night club owners. Cosser gets sucked in, and starts to fear for his life. His panic reactions cause a major crisis.