Myra Barrs was Honorary Senior Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Education, UK, and former director of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

Tony Burgess has been a secondary-school teacher, before working in research and teacher education at the UCL Institute of Education, UK.

John Richmond has been an English teacher, an adviser of teachers and an educational broadcaster.

Jenifer Smith has been an English and drama teacher in both primary and secondary schools, before becoming a teacher educator at the University of East Anglia, UK.

John Yandell taught in secondary schools for 20 years before moving to the UCL Institute of Education, UK, where he is Professor of English in Education.

Introduction - James Britton's life and work

Section 1 The language of young children

1.1 The development of language: 'Learning to speak'

1.2 Early literacy: 'Young fluent writers'

1.3 Meaning-making, interaction and play: 'The anatomy of human experience - the role of inner speech'

Section 2 Language and learning at school

2.1 The value of talk: 'Now that you go to school'

2.2 'Language and learning'

2.3 In defence of 'progressive' practice: 'Language in the British primary school'

2.4 The disorderliness of learning: from 'Talking to learn'

Section 3 Writing

3.1 Expressive writing: 'Writing to learn and learning to write'

3.2 Functions and audiences in the development of writing: from The development of writing abilities (11-18)

3.3 What writers have in common: 'Shaping at the point of utterance'

Section 4 Teachers and research

4.1 'A note on teaching, research and "development"'

4.2. 'A quiet form of research'

4.3 The community of the classroom: 'Vygotsky's contribution to pedagogical theory'

Section 5 A certain idea of English

5.1 The scope of English: 'What is English?'

5.2 'Literature in its place'

5.3 Autobiographical coda: 'English teaching: retrospect and prospect'

5.4 Today's student teachers reading and discussing Britton