A Month in the Country
By J.L. Carr

A sensitive portrayal of the healing process that took place in the aftermath of the First World War, J.L. Carr'sand A Month in the Countryand includes an introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald, author ofand Offshore, in Penguin Modern Classics.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 and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years. Adapted into a 1987 film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh,and A Month in the Countryand traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great WarJoseph Lloyd Carr (1912-1994) attended the village school at Carlton Miniott in the North Riding and Castleford Secondary School. A head teacher, publisher and novelist, his books includeand A Day in Summerand (1964);and The Harpole Reportand (1972);and A Month in the Countryand (1980), which won theand Guardianand Fiction prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize;and The Battle of Pollock's Crossingand (1985), which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize;and What Hetty Didand (1988) andand Harpole and Foxberrow, General Publishersand (1992).If you enjoyedand A Month in the Country, you might like Ford Madox Ford'sand Parade's End, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Unlike anything else in modern English literature'D.J. Taylor,and Spectator