A Month in the Country (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Information

We can ask and ask but we can’t have again what once seemed ours for ever – the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. L. Carr is a captivating novella that invites us to share a long-ago summer in the English countryside of 1920 with Tom Birkin, A World War I veteran.

And what Birkin’s left with — some half century later when he is writing this remembrance — is a memory of peace, wonder, something deeply elemental, something deeply beautiful in the art he finds and the place he lived, a still joy and, yes, regret. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. A damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting, immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside. As a big fan, I have to recommend it and have continued to re-read it over the years, always finding something new or enjoying the moment again.As for Carr’s other fiction, I’ve heard very good things about the football one – How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup. Carr, an obstinate man, didn’t care that it was already Turgenev’s title – besides, the novella has a Turgenevian mood to it. Due to the small budget of the film, Blake agreed "in lieu of a reasonable fee" to retain the copyright to his music. Another collection, Still Further: New Poems, 2000–2019, will be published by the Uhlanga Press this year.

L. Carr, and stars Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh (in his first credited role), Natasha Richardson and Patrick Malahide. It’s actually a second reading for me – I first read it a couple of years ago but couldn’t quite find the right words for it at the time. They put on an excellent season of films based on books and, where possible, asked people associated with it to attend for some questions afterwards. Keach, the minister of the church in which Birkin is working, feels the uncovering of the wall painting is a nuisance – a waste of time and money, tolerated solely to satisfy the requirements of his late parishioner’s will.For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page.

It is a great novel and will be read long after some of the detritus acclaimed these days has been flushed away by our blessed ally, Time.Short enough to allow for a quick reading, this economical work doesn't lack depth in any way; the characters are really funny and serious, being very easy to empathize with them in their joy and their sadness. When he arrives in Oxgodby, Birkin knows very well life is not all ease and intimacy, long summer days with "winter always loitering around the corner. In reality, there is another purpose to Birkin’s visit: to find an escape or haven of sorts, an immersive distraction from the emotional scars of the past.

The uncovering of the past, archaeological and mural was all quite in tune with what needed to happen for the two men who found themselves there for the summer.

A pastoral, this is a beautifully written novella full of descriptions of the countryside at the last point of the horse age, before farming became an industry like any other. Birkin gets himself quite deeply involved in the local community, in particular making friends with the Ellerbeck family, stalwarts of local Methodism. Birkin and Moon both had their different skills and it was fascinating to watch them at work and to admire their professionalism. Both Birkin and Moon whose name is Charles were in the Great War, both injured, Moon still carrying shrapnel in his leg, Birkin a face-twitch, the result of shell shock.