Product Description

The place is St Oswald's, an old and long-established boys' grammar school in the north of England. A new year has just begun, and for the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world and Roy Straitley, Latin master, eccentric, and veteran of St Oswald's, is finally - reluctantly - contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for thirteen years, is about to erupt. Who is Mole, the mysterious insider, whose cruel practical jokes are gradually escalating towards violence - and perhaps, murder? And how can an old and half-forgotten scandal become the stone that brings down a giant?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29369 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Daily Express, June 16 2006
'A delicious black comedy...a clever story of obsession and revenge, with a spectacular final twist'

From the Back Cover
‘Wildly entertaining…a literary gobstopper’
Independent on Sunday

At St Oswald’s, an old and long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, Latin master, eccentric, and veteran of St Oswald’s, is finally – reluctantly – contemplating retirement.

But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for thirteen years, is about to erupt.

‘Constantly surprising and wickedly fun’
Washington Post

'A clever story of obsession and revenge…Ms Harris has scored another success'
Sunday Telegraph

‘Harris is one of the best popular authors around and this latest will only enhance her reputation’
Scotsman

About the Author
Joanne Harris is the author of the Whitbread-shortlisted Chocolat (made into a major film starring Juliette Binoche), Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Jigs & Reels, Sleep, Pale Sister and, with Fran Warde, The French Kitchen: A Cookbook and The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen. Joanne lives in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with her husband and daughter.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic book! I couldn't put it down!
I was recommended this book by my wife who has read all of her books! Eventually I took up the challenge and was completely absorbed by the brilliant characters! The book is written from a dual narrative perspective and manages to switch from one to the other without losing the thread - it is a real testament to the quality of the writing that I was desperate to find out what was going to happen from both narrative views. Add to this the fact that the book has unexpected developments that hit you at precisely the right time and have you thumbing back through what you've read for clues. I read this book incredibly quickly and am still thinking about the way it all panned out.
In short this is an incredibly good book, very readable and keeps your interest at every page. It has a wry humour despite some extremely dark human behaviour!
I would recommend this book to anyone. I enjoyed it so much even though it made my wife extremely smug to be proved right! I now want to read her other books - apparently one is written from the perspective of a bottle of wine!! If she can pull that off then she is, indeed, an exceptionally talented writer!

Thrilling
Gentlemen and Players is ultimately (though not nearly as simply) a tale of bitterness and revenge. Harris uses two narrators to good effect, although this is admittedly confusing at the beginning of the novel. On one side we have Snyde (the player), who is planning to bring down grammar school St Oswald's from the inside, while on the other we have eccentric (and very likeable) Latin master Straightly (the Gentleman), who is potentially the only one capable of seeing the disasters that begin to occur around the school.

Harris' tale effortlessly breezes between past and present to good effect, and the two narrators are portrayed likeable by Harris, ironic as they are opposites. Snyde, although seemingly evil, draws a lot of sympathy when it comes to the child's upbringing. It is clear that Snyde as a child felt rejected by St Oswald's, and it this that gave much bitterness and hatred towards the school. We also see Harris poking a little fun at the snobbery of the middle classes and the grammar school.

Overall, Snyde's obsession with St Oswald's becomes the reader's obsession to, as the pages are desperately turned to find out what happens next. Harris is effective in her fast paced style of writing, combining thrilling writing effortlessly with suspense; making it obvious she had a whale of a time writing this. Although at times the narrating is flawed, and the twist at the end is a little inconsistent with previous events, this makes for a light and entertaining read. This is no classic, but nevertheless a highly enjoyable read.

Fantastic story telling and complex plots to tax the mind
Gentlemen and Players is a wonderful book which convinced me that nobody does plots, intrigues and denouements better than Joanne Harris. On the face of it, this is a straightforward story, of the jealous son of a pirvate school caretaker, who infiltrates himself into the school by stealing bits of uniform and surruptiously taking part in sports and games, and later lessons. However, this turns out to be a tale of high drama, as a number of years later, the school suffers various calamities which threaten its very existence.

The characters are very well drawn - Roy Straitley, the aging classics master is perhaps the key character and so much of the story revolves around his slightly embittered and cynical personality. Roy has seen it all before, and yet events take even him by surprise and he turns out to be a key player in the unfolding drama. But all the characterisations are strong, and several weeks after reading the book, I find it easy to remember the parts played by the various "gentlemen and players".

This is a "mystery" book - at its core is a complex story with an unpredictable ending. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a great story, and the feeling of being so absorbed in a book that you want to go on reading it at a single sitting.