This brings her, as a junior teacher, to take a job at King Henry’s School, St Oswald’s traditional rival, where Conrad vanished without trace nearly 20 years before. Thus begins a game of chess unlike Straitley has ever known, as Buckfast leads him (and the reader) through the events leading up to the death, beginning with the disappearance of her teenage brother, Conrad, when she was only five years old, and her search to discover the truth. Reporting the find to the new Head, Straitley is astonished to find that she already knows, and using his fierce loyalty to the School – which would surely not survive yet another scandal – as well as his desire to keep Scoones’ dark secret, Buckfast persuades Straitley to listen to her story. Although he does not share the new Head’s vision for the School, Straitley views Buckfast as a worthy opponent, and looks forward to taking up her challenge – that is, until a group of pupils report finding what looks like human remains on the site of a new building project.
Now, as Head, she reveals herself to be a genuine force for change. Rebecca Buckfast is not new to the School, having been part of the Crisis Team brought in the previous year to try to turn the School’s fortunes around. This year, new challenges await not least the arrival of girls in the School, and the appointment of a Headmistress, the first in the School’s 500-year history. Roy Straitley, the elderly Latin Master and last surviving relic of the School’s glory days, has been facing retirement for years, but cannot contemplate leaving the place that represents his whole life. Founded in the 16th century, now beset by financial problems, falling numbers and a series of scandals, the School seems on the brink of disaster. The setting is St Oswald’s, a crumbling private school for boys in the north of England. Joanne kindly answered a few of my questions.
Her latest novel, A Narrow Door, was published by Orion on 4 August 2021. Joanne Harris’ novels include Gentlemen and Players, Chocolat, The Strawberry Thief, Five Quarters of the Orange, Different Class, The Lollipop Shoes, Runemarks, The Gospel of Loki, Sleep, Pale Sister and Orfeia.
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