Boyhood

A Different Class is a difficult and sometimes harrowing coming-of-age tale. The first of a series chartering Joel Phillips quaky journey from boyhood to parenthood. The tale is set in rural 1980's Britain. Best described as Tom Brown's Schooldays meets Billy Elliot - but without the dancing - the story follows Joel's struggle with a variety of issues.

From Caddlethorpe a small coal-mining community to a select boarding school for boys.

From humble beginnings, Joel is thrust into the alien environment of a plush school and things begin to unravel. He has little in common with his wealthy peers and is an outcast from the beginning. The Falkland's Conflict touches Joel's life, a life plagued with isolation, bullying, and frequent beatings at school and at home. The peaceful village becomes a war zone; a friend blurs the lines of friendship and love and a near death experience leaves a disability as a legacy.

Will Joel sink or swim? One thing was sure, he wouldn't go down without a fight.