Michael Smith

At Cross Purposes: A Cathedral Organist's Memoirs Michael Smith

Publisher Marketing: 'It was during a Monday evensong that the assistant verger murdered his wife.' 'It was not so much that the cathedral was badly run, as that it was not really run at all.' When Michael Smith was 36, his life seemed well-nigh perfect. With a lovely wife and a young daughter he was living in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral, where he was the highly-qualified and well-respected assistant organist. He looked forward to new challenges at a cathedral in south Wales, but was unprepared for the attitude of the authorities which would continually test his resolve. With the passage of years he was also dismayed at the conduct and inefficiency of some of his colleagues, which extended to inefficiency, deviousness, dishonesty and even murder. At Cross Purposes is a detailed chronicle of his public success in maintaining the daily round of cathedral music, persevering towards his goals despite the obstacles and indifference, latterly amounting to relentless opposition, that he faced along the way. The book gives a fascinating insight into the life of Michael Smith, extending beyond his work as a choral director, music examiner and teacher to brief accounts of his later ventures into door-to-door sales networking and market research interviewing, alongside his significant role as a family man. 'I feel the hand of Anthony Trollope on his shoulder, ' writes Canon Jeremy Davies in his Foreword, recalling the Barchester chronicles. In At Cross Purposes we have a real-life story at first hand. Contributor Bio:  Smith, Michael Michael Smith is coauthor with Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith of Get It Done!; Oh, Yeah?!; and So, What's the Story?. Michael, a professor in Temple University's College of Education, joined the ranks of college teachers after 11 years of teaching high school English. He has won awards for his teaching at both the high school and college levels. His research focuses on understanding how experienced readers read and talk about texts as well as what motivates adolescents' reading and writing out of school. He uses that understanding to think about how to devise more effective and engaging reading and writing instruction for adolescents in school. Michael has cowritten or coedited three other Heinemann books, Going with the Flow; Reflective Teaching, Reflective Learning; and "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys." For Chevys he and coauthor Jeff Wilhelm received the NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. When he's not working, Michael's likely to be watching or talking about sports, reading, or playing with his granddaughter.