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Gentlemen & Players

Gentlemen & Players

The first in the Malbry Cycle of gripping psychological thrillers - the latest of which is A Narrow Door.

At St Oswald's, a long-established boys' grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally - reluctantly - contemplating retirement.

But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for thirteen years, is about to erupt.

Reviews

  • [A] gripping psychological thriller... Harris is one of our most accomplished novelists and Gentlemen & Players, with its pace, wit and acute observation, shows her at the top of her form

    DAILY EXPRESS

  • [A] delicious black comedy ... the plot is so cleverly constructed, the tension so unflagging, you'd think she'd been writing thrillers all her life

    DAILY MAIL

  • With a lightness of touch, Harris illuminates just how resentment of privilege and exclusion can lead to violent resolutions... Marvellously mischievous

    GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

  • [A] clever story of obsession and revenge... Ms Harris has scored another success

    SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

  • A classic whodunnit with the characters carefully crafted and the tension at a knife edge

    SUNDAY EXPRESS (TOP TEN FICTION 2005)

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About the Author

Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris's Whitbread-shortlisted Chocolat was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is the author of many other bestselling novels, including Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, and The Strawberry Thief, all also featuring Vianne Rocher. She has also written acclaimed novels in such diverse genres as fantasy based on Norse myth (Runemarks, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki), and the Malbry cycle of dark psychological thrillers (Gentlemen & Players, Blueeyedboy, and Different Class). Born in Barnsley, of an English father and a French mother, she spent fifteen years as a teacher before (somewhat reluctantly) becoming a full-time writer. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE. She lives in Yorkshire, plays bass and flute in a band first formed when she was sixteen, and works in a shed in her garden.

Joanne Harris

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Features

Joanne Harris on the secrets and drama of school days

Joanne Harris returns to St Oswald’s Grammar School in Different Class, the third in a series of novels that sees the school on the brink of ruin. Her letter to her readers sets the scene

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