He knows all the right words – ‘gender awareness’, ‘cultural sensitivity’, ‘abuse situations’, and in his inaugural talk to the staff, explains how the school is to be ‘rebranded’. John Harrington is not just any old head but a Superhead who has already ‘saved’ two failing schools and has been asked to take on St Oswald’s which has not been going through the best of times. He knows that the new head is not the type to forgive and forget and that life is going to become difficult for him. There had been friction between them and he had almost cost Straitley his job. He is now close to retirement, something to which he is not looking forward, but which suddenly seems more attractive when he discovers that the newly-appointed head is a former pupil of the school whom he had disliked intensely and distrusted even more. Whilst aware of the requirements of tradition, he is rather more generous towards his form – ‘the Brodie Boys’ - than some other masters, and has gained their respect. Roy Straitley has been there as a Latin master for 30 years and is now so entrenched that he can’t imagine himself being anywhere else. It has houses and housemasters, it has forms and form masters, and there is a special procedure called ‘placing on report’ for any boy who breaks the (often trivial) rules. St Oswald’s is immediately identifiable as a very traditional type of independent grammar school. The story begins at the start of the Michaelmas term in 2005. This is Joanne Harris’s second novel set in St Oswald’s and featuring Latin master Roy Straitley.

Different class joanne harris summary