At the school gate - Sam Jordison

From Sam Jordison, author of the bestselling Crap Towns series, comes I-SPY for Grown-ups.

The I-SPY concept is very simple: it's like the 'I spy with my little eye' game, only instead of all the tedious stuff about 'something beginning with', there are pictures and descriptions and genuine opportunities to use your sleuthing skills to discover interesting things. This can be alarming - but when turned into a sport, it's also fun.

At the school gates, everyone is childish. You'll see over-excitement, sexual tension, poor discipline, bad language, bullying, and temper tantrums. Especially among the parents. It really is a world unto itself - with unique fauna and its own complex set of social patterns which generally revolve around impenetrable cliques and complicated competitions. They also involve interesting displays of status and costume. All of which provide a simply topping challenge for good I-SPYers.