Coalescent

I saw it about a year ago (instant response on my now-hiatused blog at http://stet.typepad.com/stet/2004/05/the_invention_o.html ) and I guess we have somewhat different takes on it. Yes, absolutely, it's a stacked deck so far as it debates education; but I took the education stuff as part of a larger indictment of What Thatcherism Has Wrought. I took the line about good point vs true as an indication that Irwin's charges were learning from him, perhaps a little too much for his comfort - of course it's a bogus distinction, but a well-presented bogus distinction.

Re the details, I believe there are enough cues in the text to place it in a northern grammar school in the mid-80s, and the Oxbridge admissions procedures tally with that. But it's not 7am yet, so I'm probably misremembering all this...