The group stepped back in time for our double bill in July – ‘The Harpole Report’ and ‘A Month in the Country’ – both books by J. L. Carr, an author with a local connection. Originally from Yorkshire, he later became a Headteacher in Kettering, retiring in 1968 to spend the rest of his life in Northamptonshire where he continued to publish historical maps and pocket books entitled ‘The Little Poets’.
‘The Harpole Report’ tells the story of a rural primary school in the 1960s, and for the most part is written in the form of a school logbook kept by George Harpole, temporary Headteacher of ‘Tampling St Nicholas’. It relates his frustrations at having to deal with the bureaucratic Education Board, staff entrenched in out of date teaching methods, class bias and misogyny. Gradually, George is able to implement some changes resulting in a positive report for the school. Throughout the book, his trials and tribulations are related with humour and we meet some larger than life characters along the way. Although it’s a fictional account, it’s hard to believe that it doesn’t bear some resemblance to the author’s experience of school!
By contrast, ‘A Month in the Country’ is set in 1920 in the village of Oxgodby in Yorkshire, the inspiration for which is taken from different places in J. L. Carr’s life. Tom Birkin, now an old man, looks back on the short time he spent there with a sense of nostalgia, but also loss. Tom had fought in the trenches and had returned with a facial twitch as a result of his trauma. He is an expert in restoring mediaeval murals and has been employed to uncover a 14th century painting in the village church. During his time in Oxgodby, Tom becomes immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. He is mostly made welcome by the locals and develops a warm relationship with Alice, the vicar’s wife. The story is beautifully and evocatively written, recalling a time irrecoverably lost – ‘We can ask and ask but we can’t have again what once seemed ours for ever …. They’ve gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.’ A book we all rated highly, some members reading it more than once!
Louise Elsome
‘Bookworms’ Group Coordinator