First published in 1977, Patterns of Education in the British Isles is the first modern discussion of the educational systems of the British Isles and the ways in which they influence each other. It is no arid account of administrative structures but the first major attempt to set the systems in their cultural, political, and historical context, and to relate them to each other.

The book explores the reality behind the rhetoric. It discusses the extravagant claims sometimes made for Scottish education, the often-neglected merits of Irish education, and the fortunes of the Celtic languages; it examines the peculiar problems of the remote areas, the offshore islands, and the politics of the educational profession. Although particularly concerned with the non-English systems of these islands, it also considers their relationships with education in the rest of Europe and the world beyond.