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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1112329.Gentlemen_and_Players?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Gentlemen and Players" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1181095981m/1112329.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1112329.Gentlemen_and_Players?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Gentlemen and Players</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9432.Joanne_Harris">Joanne Harris</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3837723?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars bought me this for Yule last year an it languished on the shelf - so mighty is my aversion to cricket that the red leather ball on the cover made me fear the worst!
 
 Thankfully, and I could kiss the author, cricket is barely mentioned. This is the story of a public school, St Oswalds, which becomes the battleground when the child of the former porter returns and seeks revenge for the death of a friend and the resentment of being rejected by the priviledge world of St Oswald's and left to fight it out at the local comprehensive. 
 
 The story is told from two points of view, Snyde (the porter's kid) and Straitley and the tweed encrusted Classics Master who is almost part of the fittings. 
 
 Snyde has a love-hate relationship with St Oswalds, wanting to attend as a child to the extent of stealing uniform items and posing as a pupil to escape Sunnybank Comprehensive (with the horrors that such a school can throw at the intelligent and sensitve when all the other pupils scrape their knuckles on the floor). Snyde becomes Julian Pinchbeck in the corridors of St Oswalds and befriends a genuine pupil, Leon Mitchell, and the two of them begin a campaign of mischief that ends in tragedy. 
 
 Straitley is the old classics master who feels beseiged by the ever expending IT and modern languages departments. When a grown up Snyde returns to the school as a teacher, he is one of the targets of the revenge and venom and it is own devotion to tradition and love of the school that means he is being "saved until last" whilst other staff and pupils are brought down.
 
 Snyde is an excellent anti-hero and villian because Harris leaves some room for sympathy and understanding. A broken home, alcoholic father and a desperate need to escape from both and into another world are the initial motives that lead to deception and much worse. 
 
 The other thing I love about this is that it is written with Harris's usual skill but without being "another Chocolat", the subject and characters are very different. 
 
 Spiffy. Go read it.
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/239693?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Furzecat's review
rating:
bookshelves: fiction

bought me this for Yule last year an it languished on the shelf - so mighty is my aversion to cricket that the red leather ball on the cover made me fear the worst!

Thankfully, and I could kiss the author, cricket is barely mentioned. This is the story of a public school, St Oswalds, which becomes the battleground when the child of the former porter returns and seeks revenge for the death of a friend and the resentment of being rejected by the priviledge world of St Oswald's and left to fight it out at the local comprehensive.

The story is told from two points of view, Snyde (the porter's kid) and Straitley and the tweed encrusted Classics Master who is almost part of the fittings.

Snyde has a love-hate relationship with St Oswalds, wanting to attend as a child to the extent of stealing uniform items and posing as a pupil to escape Sunnybank Comprehensive (with the horrors that such a school can throw at the intelligent and sensitve when all the other pupils scrape their ...more bought me this for Yule last year an it languished on the shelf - so mighty is my aversion to cricket that the red leather ball on the cover made me fear the worst!

Thankfully, and I could kiss the author, cricket is barely mentioned. This is the story of a public school, St Oswalds, which becomes the battleground when the child of the former porter returns and seeks revenge for the death of a friend and the resentment of being rejected by the priviledge world of St Oswald's and left to fight it out at the local comprehensive.

The story is told from two points of view, Snyde (the porter's kid) and Straitley and the tweed encrusted Classics Master who is almost part of the fittings.

Snyde has a love-hate relationship with St Oswalds, wanting to attend as a child to the extent of stealing uniform items and posing as a pupil to escape Sunnybank Comprehensive (with the horrors that such a school can throw at the intelligent and sensitve when all the other pupils scrape their knuckles on the floor). Snyde becomes Julian Pinchbeck in the corridors of St Oswalds and befriends a genuine pupil, Leon Mitchell, and the two of them begin a campaign of mischief that ends in tragedy.

Straitley is the old classics master who feels beseiged by the ever expending IT and modern languages departments. When a grown up Snyde returns to the school as a teacher, he is one of the targets of the revenge and venom and it is own devotion to tradition and love of the school that means he is being "saved until last" whilst other staff and pupils are brought down.

Snyde is an excellent anti-hero and villian because Harris leaves some room for sympathy and understanding. A broken home, alcoholic father and a desperate need to escape from both and into another world are the initial motives that lead to deception and much worse.

The other thing I love about this is that it is written with Harris's usual skill but without being "another Chocolat", the subject and characters are very different.

Spiffy. Go read it.
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