Onto Cocytus (Lamentation) which is spine tingling, hair raising and jaw dropping especially the archaic nature of male dominated King Henry’s in its dismissiveness of any femininity. First Acheron, where the woes of creepy, spooky, menacing images of Becky’s childhood haunt the page.
The writing and plot flow as effortlessly as the rivers we float through. It’s a clever psychological thriller that uses the Greek mythological rivers of the underworld to get to the truth about Conrad Price. I’m so glad to return to St O’s and Straitley, who, despite his straight jacket of convention is a favourite character and I enjoy the battle between him and feminist Becky who is a strong woman who has overcome much. This is a journey through memories, a face off for the soul of St Oswalds, the old versus the new, who is the spider, who the fly and who will emerge victorious? The novel has alternating timelines from 19, with rival schools St O’s and King Henry’s Grammar School taking centre stage. Both are haunted, Becky by the ghostly form of her missing brother Conrad, her aged five memories seem to make little sense while Roy is haunted by Eric Scoones, one time friend whose memory is seriously tainted. Becky aims to demonstrate that Roy is wrong about woman, that her ambition will throw open these hallowed narrow doors wide by, shock, horror, admitting female students. She represents its future just as Roy Straitley, classics teacher of many years, is its past.
Rebecca Buckfast née Price is the first woman headteacher through the ‘narrow door’ of St Oswalds, Malbry, the institution rocked by murder and scandal. She also spends too much time on Twitter plays flute and bass guitar in a band first formed when she was 16 and works from a shed in her garden at her home in Yorkshire. Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion'. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by the Queen. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She has also written a DR WHO novella for the BBC, has scripted guest episodes for the game ZOMBIES, RUN!, and is currently engaged in a number of musical theatre projects as well as developing an original drama for television. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories.
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