''Hairs in the Palm of the Hand'' is a collection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

written for children by British author

Jan Mark Jan Mark (22 June 1943 – 16 January 2006) was a British writer best known for children's books. In all she wrote over fifty novels and plays and many anthologised short stories. She won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, ...

, published in 1981. The book consists of two

novellas A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

, ''Time and the Hour'' and ''Chutzpah''. It also became a Chivers Audio book read by

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentarie ...

. This was a keenly observed book of school stories, and comprises two short

Time and the Hour

The story takes place at an all boys' school with one particular class called 1x. One of the students, Martin Bennett is keeping a record of how much time is being wasted and saved during each school day for fun. When school troublemaker Addison realizes what Martin is up to, him and some of the other classmates Forbes, Hopkins, Luckhurst and Traill decide to make a wager of how much they can save and waste during the next week with Martin being the bookmaker and Forbes being his supervisor, despite the Deputy Headmaster issuing a gambling ban. Whoever won would collect his winnings at the 125 bus stop, if it came out even, no one would win. The next week becomes chaotic mostly with Hopkins (who bet wasting 49 minutes) and Addison (who bet saving 15 minutes) trying to win their bets by incidents and distractions, whilst annoying quite a lot of their teachers. However eventually all the teachers find out what's going on, especially when Martin accidentally hands in the time wasting sheet instead of his test paper to one of the teachers Mr. Holland by mistake and after a fire drill, no one ends up winning the wager much to Addison's annoyance.

Chutzpah

The story is about a teenage girl called Eileen Skeates who decides to visit a mixed comprehensive named Shepway school, she causes a lot of chaos during her visit and turns the school into an uproar. Her actions include giving out false names of Julie Smith, Susan Tucker and Deborah Clark when challenged by several teachers, introducing the third year girls to feminist politics and encouraging the sixth form to squat in an unused classroom. She meets a girl called Lisa Donovan, who thinks she's barmy because of her carefree attitude and the way she keeps causing trouble. Later after a long chat with each other, the teachers realize what Eileen has been up to and one of them catch her. Whilst being taken to the Headmaster's office, she escapes after the teacher is trying to deal with the sixth form incident that Eileen had caused which allows the girl to sneak away. After saying goodbye to Lisa who is with a few other girls she met and telling them why she came to their school, Eileen goes back home.

References

{{Portal , Children's literature 1981 children's books Novels set in schools Short stories set in schools Children's novellas Children's short story collections British novellas Children's books set in the United Kingdom Children's books set in schools