Criticisms of the field of educational leadership and management have consisted of the arguments that scholarship is generally lacking in theoretical and methodological rigour. While it is beyond the scope of this Review Essay to fully examine the terrain of critical approaches to leadership, what is important to note is what little headway much of this important research and literature has made into the broader field of educational leadership and actual leadership practices. What are still needed in "the field" of educational leadership and management are more nuanced and diverse accounts of heads' everyday work and lives, to give an understanding of the day-to-day realities and pressures they face. Without this, it is difficult to create new possibilities for different ways of working as school leaders. This is not only for the purposes of addressing the supply problem, but also to provide alternative ways of understanding school leadership and management. The need for these sorts of analyses makes the work in Pat Thomson's book "Heads on the Block" all the more important, for it not only grapples with the work of school heads in all its tainted glory, but also manages to negotiate its way through the mire of day to day life for heads without resorting to best practice fads, the latest model and heroic descriptions of great leaders. (Contains 3 notes.)