Gentlemen and Players

Gentlemen & Players

Second edition cover
Author	Joanne Harris
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Mystery, Psychological suspense novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1 October 2005
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	512 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	(first edition, hardback)
OCLC	60667909

Gentlemen & Players is a novel by Joanne Harris first published in 2005. A dark psychological thriller, some of the themes may be partly based on Harris' experiences as a teacher at Leeds Grammar School. Set in the present day during Michaelmas term at St Oswald's, a grammar school for boys somewhere in the North of England, the book is a psychological thriller about class distinctions, damaged childhood, secrets, identity and revenge.

St Oswald's is a long-established boys' grammar school in the North of England. A new academic year has just begun and change is afoot. Roy Straitley, the Classics master and a veteran of St Oswald's, is contemplating retirement. Increased paperwork, computers, Health & Safety and a new generation of administrators have finally persuaded him that he no longer has a place in the world of education. However, St Oswald's is about to suffer a cataclysmic upheaval.

It begins with a series of small acts of mischief conducted by someone on school premises. At first, no one thinks of connecting these seemingly isolated incidents. But gradually, as the incidents become increasingly serious, it becomes clear that someone with inside knowledge is intent on causing real damage. Only Mr Straitley may have the key to the identity of the mysterious saboteur - but can he expose the enemy in time to prevent a murder?

As the new school year starts in September, Roy Straitley is looking forward to his 100th term at St Oswald's, where he has been teaching for 33 years. Having never married, he lives alone and has devoted his life to his career. His sitting room walls are full of pictures of "his boys", and St Oswald's represents his only family. He is slightly overweight and ugly by conventional standards (his nickname among his pupils is "Quaz", short for "Quasimodo"). Popular with the students, he adheres to the old principle of being "firm but fair" where teaching and disciplinary matters are concerned. An incurable optimist, Straitley is only uncomfortable when he has to deal with the opposite sex. He is a keen observer, and hardly anything connected with life at the school, however insignificant, ever escapes his notice. A firm believer in the advantages and importance of a classical education, he shuns computers, resorts to Latin to swear and insult his colleagues (which they do not understand), and opposes the idea of any competition between schools other than the kind which is carried out on the playing fields. Smoking Gauloises in his empty form room is his "one concession to the influence of the Modern Languages", and there is long-standing enmity between Straitley and Dr Devine, the Head of German.