The Harpole Report

The Harpole Report

Dust jacket of first edition - 1972
Author J.L. Carr
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fiction
Publisher Secker and Warburg
Publication date
1972
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 164
ISBN 978-0-436-08610-6
OCLC 641281
823/.9/14
LC Class PZ4.C3118 Har PR6053.A694
Preceded by A Season in Sinji
Followed by How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup

The Harpole Report is the third novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1972. The novel tells the story mostly in the form of a school log book kept by George Harpole, temporary Head Teacher of the Church of England primary school of "Tampling St. Nicholas". The novel has attained a minor cult status within the teaching profession. The characters George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow reappear in Carr's eighth and final novel, Harpole & Foxberrow General Publishers and more briefly, What Hetty Did.

Like all of Carr's novels, it is grounded in personal experience. Carr was a Primary School teacher for almost 40 years, including 15 years spent as Head Teacher of Highfields school in Kettering.[1] Carr described it as "an evangelical tract that got away".[2] The novel is now published by The Quince Tree Press, which was established by Carr in 1966 to publish his illustrated maps and small books.[3]

Characters

Reviews

Frank Muir described The Harpole Report as "the funniest and perhaps the truest story about running a school that I ever have read" and chose it as his book to take to a desert island on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.

The Times described it as "An assortment of memorable characters lurking in the English educational undergrowth."[4]

Publication history

Broadcasts

An abridged version of the book was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1981, read by Martin Jarvis.[5] It was again dramatised by Jonathan Smith for R4 in 2012.[6]

References

  1. Rogers, Byron (2003). The Last Englishman. The Life of J.L. Carr. London: Aurum Press.
  2. Carr, J.L. (1983) A double life in literature. The Author Vol 44, No 4, pages 102 - 104.
  3. Carr, J.L. (1987) An inventory and a history of the Quince Tree Press to mark its 21st year and the sale of its 500,000th small book. August 1987. Kettering: The Quince Tree Press.
  4. "Kettering; the workaday town that takes pride in its modest achievements". The Times (London). July 5, 1972. p. 14.
  5. "Radio". The Times (London). September 12, 1983. p. 23.
  6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dd3dd