Novels

A Month in the Country

The best known of J.L.Carr’s works, this is a poignant tale of missed moments, love and discovery. Set at the close of the Great War and enacted amongst a Yorkshire village community beneath the slowly unravelled mystery in the medieval wall paintings of the church.

Guardian Fiction Prize 1980 Booker Prize Short List 1980

“A Profoundly Affecting Tale.” Auberon Waugh

“It is short, it is odd, it is memorable, it is admirable.” Marganhita Laski

Filmed with Kenneth Branaugh & Colin Firth

The Harpole Report

George Harpole, acting head of a primary school, is determined to climb the career ladder. The way ahead to teaching success seems clear, but he is hampered by his honesty, fair mindedness, and his fellow teachers. The hugely comic tale unfolds through a series of school logs, notes, letters and memos.

“The funniest and perhaps the truest story about running a school that I have ever read”. Frank Muir

A Season in Sinji

“This whole business from start to end, was like a game of cricket, the issue never sure, who’d win, who’d lose and who’d just watch...and go away!” The little victories of everyday life are played out against the backdrop of a flying boat squadron on the war time coast of West Africa.

“The best cricket based novel I have ever read, and analogy is drawn between the way one has to wait, both in life and in the game, for one’s fortunes to change”.. Matthew Engel

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The Battle of Pollock’s Crossing

Young teacher George Gidner grabs the chance to spend a year teaching in 1930’s South Dakota. So begins his life as a foreigner and a fascination with the heroes of the frontier. The Battle at the Crossing is the climax of this tale of pioneering spirit. Underlying all, however, is a warning that despite our shared language, the Americans may be disturbingly different.

Booker Prize Short List 1986

“He is a wholly original writer and has written a book quite unlike any other” Nina Bawden

How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A.Cup

The title is really what this book is all about - a fantastical ambition achieved, most importantly, by a mix of diverse characters. Following the local school master’s adapted teaching ‘Theory’, inspirational team performances, exemplary captaincy and wily chairmanship, with great good fortune the Wanderers play for the greatest prize in club football.

“It delivers with a kind of derisive gaiety some murderous blows at the fat-heads who populate professional football.” Benny Green, The Spectator

A Day in Summer

The early train brings Peplow, intent on avenging his young son’s death, to Great Minden on the day of the annual fair. Newcomer and residents alike each have their own agenda and hidden lives. As they entwine within this wry, vivid novel the role of revenge becomes darkly comic and moves like a thriller to its startling climax.

“By mingling knockabout comedy and high seriousness Carr achieves a rare honesty, a kind of soured sweetness found in the work of no other contemporary writer” D.J.Taylor

What Hetty Did, or Life and Letters

Hetty is a spirited intellectual girl sustained by English literature in her struggles against a brutish home life. When she discovers that she was adopted she runs away in search of her real parents. Finding shelter in a Birmingham boarding house, she meets eccentric lodgers and experiences a wider world of mass demonstrations, ethics and music hall.

“This book, generally so witty, so vivacious, and so original is a gem” Francis King, The Spectator

Harpole & Foxberrow; General Publishers

George and Emma are amongst the characters from earlier novels who make a return in this book about publishing. All areas are explored from the perils of a humble printing press to the giants of the greater publishing world, based on the author’s own experiences of producing his own books.

“It’s as accomplished, as entertaining and as outstanding as anything its author has done” D.J.Taylor, The Spectator