To his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils the demon in human form known as Tony Morland; or that the master's ravishing, feather-brained daughter Rose will, with her flights of fancy and many admirers, spread chaos throughout school and village. Humorous, high-spirited and cleverly observed, Summer Half is a comic delight.
My Thoughts
Tangled relationships and quirky characters abound once more as quiet and unassuming Colin Keith postpones training for the Bar and becomes a junior master at the Southbridge School for the summer. He soon realises that teaching is not his forte but would be okay if it weren't for the boys!
Those boys include Tony Morland (who was first introduced in High Rising) and Eric Swan of the Mixed Fifth, and Hacker of the Classical Sixth who keeps a chameleon as a pet and is "awfully brainy, but quite mad". Surprisingly, Morland and Swan take a liking to Colin and ease him into his role of junior schoolmaster. Colin, in turn, is charmed by Morland's good manners. I'd expected more hi-jinx from Morland, but he seems to have quietened down a little, although there are glimpses of The Demon in the House who many Thirkell readers love or hate.
On his first day at Southbridge, Colin meets housemaster Everard Carter. Edward falls in love with Kate, Colin's sister, but nobly stands aside when he believes she favours Noel Morton, a solicitor and possibly Colin's future employer. He also meets the newly engaged Philip Winter, the Junior Classics Master, who is resentful at being overlooked for the Mixed Fifth and is not very welcoming.
The cast of characters also includes the spoilt and obnoxious Rose Birkett, the eldest daughter of the principal and who no one seems to like. Rose is making a career of being engaged and Philip is the latest to fall for Rose's charms. Their relationship is stormy as Rose treats Philip abominably. This makes him more disgruntled and unfriendly, but earns him a lot of sympathy from his colleagues and students.
Another character I would be remiss in not mentioning is the forthright and intimidating sixteen-year-old Lydia Keith, another of Colin's sisters and the youngest of the four Keith siblings, with Robert, a solicitor like his father, being the eldest. A bit of a tomboy, she enlivens any scene she is in, and in her, Morland has met his match.
And so we spend an entertaining summer half with these characters and many more, enjoying picnics, sports days, afternoon teas and other activities while watching their personal trials unfold. These are resolved wonderfully, not only to the reader's but also to the satisfaction of the characters themselves, making this my favourite of the series I have read so far. For me, Summer Half was truly a comic delight!
The next book in the series is Pomfret Towers
Hosted by: Kay @ Whatmeread
No comments:
Post a Comment