2022/011: Gentlemen and Players -- Joanne Harris

2022/011: Gentlemen and Players -- Joanne Harris

I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm; of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist. It is the season in which I feel closest to the boy I was, and at the same time closest to death. [p. 210]

Set at a fictional boys' school, St Oswalds, Gentlemen and Players has two narrators, their voices not always entirely distinctive but their respective chapters headed by the image of a black pawn or a white king. The pawn is 'Mole', whose objective is to bring down the school: the king is Straitley, the Classics master, who's survived 99 terms at St Oswalds and is determined to make the century.( Read more... )