- This is a very funny new story from one of our best-loved authors. It"s Ivan"s first day at his new school, and Boris is told to look after him, and translate for him, because Ivan can only speak Russian. After all, St Edmund"s is a civilized school. Only problem is, Ivan isn"t civilized. So when Ivan starts greeting people as "lowly shivering worms", and asking for words in English like "crush" and "mutilate", Boris realises that he"s going to have his work cut out for him. And that"s just the start of the day... Little does he know that Ivan will leave a lasting influence, and that he himself will never enjoy listening to nursery rhymes ever again... This is a classic Anne Fine story - very funny and very real.