Play Book Tag discussion

Aaahh, old-fashioned fiction! Where you care about the characters and follow them through the ups and downs of life, there are plenty of incidents, (600+ pages), and plenty of moral questions. David Powlett-Jones comes to Bamfylde School as a wounded, shell-shocked 21-year-old in 1918. He has no background in teaching and no idea whether he will be able to do it, though he finds the remote rural location of the school soothing after 3 years in the trenches. It turns out he has a lot of talent for connecting with the students. There is tragedy, humor, endurance, devotion, and lots of stories of various characters. The author himself was a school teacher, so although this is fiction, the setting of the school is very clear and detailed. I think those of us who are older can really appreciate what is like to go from being the youthful new hire to a respected elder, knowing you have made some mistakes but over all accepting what life has thrown at you.

I see there was a BBC series of this some time ago. I'll have to find out if it's available through my library.

One of my all time favorites! You make me want to read it again.