The Harpole Report by J.L. Carr
After darkness, light… I mused much, and drew much comfort really, from reading Barthes’ “Mourning Diary”; as I said, I wish I’d been aware of it before. However, I did feel the need for contrast after it, and I was also struggling to decide what to read next. When I was running my eyes over one of the many TBR piles (ahem) I noticed a slim book I picked up for a bargain 50p in a charity shop a while back; and it seemed like the perfect fit for what I wanted to read right now!
J.L. Carr probably needs no introduction here on the Ramblings; I’ve read, loved and reviewed both “A Month in the Country” and “How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup“, and I know many of my fellow bloggers rate his work too. Yet though the two books I just mentioned are Penguins and highly-regarded, his other works seem harder to find. “Harpole” was a Penguin once (my edition is an old one) but doesn’t seem to be now; and I wondered why? Interestingly, when I did a little digging, it seems that “Harpole…” was Carr’s third novel, originally published in 1972; and the Penguin edition came out in 1984, after the huge success of “A Month in the Country” in 1980. Anyway, onward and upward to the book itself!
“The Harpole Report” is the tale of the titular teacher, during the period when he undertakes the post of temporary head at St. Nicholas C of E Primary School. It’s told very clever through extracts from George Harpole’s journal, the official school log, letters to Harpole’s fiance Edith, letters by other members of the staff and a variety of other records. Stitching this together is an unnamed narrator who seems to have a sneaking sympathy for Harpole’s plight; because the education sector of the 1970s is not an easy place to negotiate!
The school is staffed by a handful of teachers, from Mr. Pintle, one of the old guard who refuses to change his methods to keep up with the times, through to Mr. Croser, a young, arrogant new teacher. Then there’s Mrs. Grindle-Jones, married to the head of a rival school, who’s stuck in middle-class respectability; and poor Miss Tollemache who struggles with what we would now call the SEN children. Newly arrived is the somewhat alarming Miss Foxberrow, a feminist Cambridge graduate with *many* progressive ideas. Add in an uncooperative caretaker, a rule-bound Local Authority and its functionaries, a problem family with a large number of children, and Harpole’s own rather diffident personality, and you have a recipe for disaster! The book is a wonderfully funny read, as we watch Harpole attempt to negotiate the rules, regulations and bureacracy, as well as dealing with angry parents, recalcitrant staff, a child prodigy called Titus and his own uncertainties. Harpole is a man just about to settle into middle aged complacency, and little does he realise how his tenure as a temporary head will change his life – more I shall not say!

The kind of old-school Primary that was around in the 1960s/70s and very much how I imagine the setting of the book! (Paul Shreeve / Bawdeswell Primary School via Wikimedia Commons)
“The Harpole Report” was another joyous book from Carr, and is drawn from hard-won experience; for the author spent nearly 40 years as a Primary School Teacher, including 15 years as a Head, so he certainly knows what he’s talking about! And I have to declare an interest here; although I went to school at roughly the time of the book and recognise the setting, I also now work in a school; so much of the “Report…” resonated very strongly with me! As with “Steeple Sinderby…” Carr takes some wonderful snipes at petty bureacracy – obviously something with which he had to wrestle continuously. There *is* much in the book that’s un-PC and not acceptable nowadays (smacking the pupils! the descriptions used for the SEN pupils and the troublesome family!) so this dates it slightly. Nevertheless, I felt a continual familiarity creeping in from my own school experiences and also from my current employment! And I did laugh at the naming of the difficult family as the Widmerpools; if you’ve read Anthony Powell’s “Dance to the Music of Time” sequence, you’ll know that Widmerpool is one of the most individual characters in the books and I couldn’t help wondering if Carr’s choice of name was deliberate.
Based on my readings of his work so far, it does feel as if Carr was gradually building up to the depth of “A Month in the Country”; “Steeple Sinderby…” came out three years after “Harpole” in 1975, and I sensed darker, perhaps more philosophical elements in it than weren’t obvious from a surface reading of the book. Those elements are also there in “Harpole…”, although again not so obvious; but a lot of the fun in this book comes from recognising the stupidity of petty bureaucracy and the inability of the school system to deal with the individual approach. The book apparently has a cult status amongst teachers and I can understand why. In these days of a rigid (and yet constantly changing) National Curriculum, and a results-led system, it does seem that not much has changed…
Jun 07, 2020 @ 08:56:10
Oh, as a retired Chalkie, I think I’d like this too:)
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:24:20
It’s great fun! A little dated in places, inevitably, but I recognised so much of it….
Jun 07, 2020 @ 08:58:13
I’ve actually got a hold at the library on A Month in the Country as a recent review (forget where) sounded good. I enjoy books that take place in schools. Having worked in them for 35 yrs so it all sounds a bit familiar. I’ll see how I go with Country before looking for this one. (then there are my shelves….aghhh)
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:25:26
A Month in the Country is a wonderful book – I do hope you enjoy it. His other books are most definitely worth exploring too, at least on the evidence of the ones I’ve read! 😀
Jun 07, 2020 @ 09:35:58
Carr was not only a fine writer (and publisher – keep an eye out for Quince Tree Press books and maps), but the inspiration for a masterpiece: Byron Rogers’ biography of him The Last Englishman.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:35:20
His press looks quite intriguing, but I didn’t know about the “Last Englishman” book – I’ll keep an eye out for that! Thanks!
Jun 07, 2020 @ 10:22:54
A Month in the Country would always make my top ten of the books you should never be without. However, I haven’t come across this one and I really do have to go and find a copy because I started teaching in 1971 and a lot of this is going to be very familiar territory for me!
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:27:45
Yeah, Month is great, and Steeple Sinderby too. I think you would find much that’s familiar in this one – so very entertaining! 😀
Jun 07, 2020 @ 11:12:06
Seems like we’re all ex teachers here! I didn’t work in the primary sector, but much of what you say about Harpole’s experience is familiar. Must seek this out.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:28:24
LOL! There’s a lot of school staff (ex or current) lurking, that’s for sure. I think you would find this entertaining Simon – I do love Carr’s writing.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:09:21
What a t a wonderful review! I have not any of Carr’s work, a thing that requires immediate remedy. Let me see what I can find in my part of the world! Also I totally understand the “ahem” when looking over the TBR pile! lol!
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:29:07
Thank you! Carr is marvellous, though I’m not sure how widely read, apart from the wonderful A Month in the Country. But I do recommend giving him a try. As for the TBR – we don’t talk about the size of that right now…
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:26:09
This sounds good! And Widmerpool, how funny! Must have been a reference to Powell’s one, surely.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 12:29:52
It was great fun, and if Widmerpool *isn’t* a reference to Powell, it’s a very odd coincidence… ;D
Jun 07, 2020 @ 14:33:56
Yeah, I’m one of those who read ‘A Month in the Country’, loved it, and never thought about reading anything else by J. L. Carr. It also has to do with his other fiction not having the NYBR imprint.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 17:21:35
“Month” is outstanding. His other works are very different but wonderfully entertaining and with hidden depths – I do recommend them!
Jun 07, 2020 @ 15:55:14
Brilliant, this sounds like a lot of fun! Although I expect the SEN descriptions are horrible reading, sometimes it’s good to be reminded of how far we’ve come.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 17:22:31
It’s a grand read. The SEN descriptions are not so bad as you might think, it’s just that the terminology is not what we would use now. We have moved on, thank goodness.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 16:04:47
If I did a list of my top ten books from my blog Month would be on it, quite possibly at the top. Strange though how most others by Carr seem neglected. I hadn’t even heard of this one.
I have his A Season in Sindj, yet unread, and plan to pick up Sinderby.
If the timing adds up in terms of who wrote what when I can’t believe the Widmerpools isn’t a reference to Powell. Either that or Powell was referencing Carr…
Jun 07, 2020 @ 17:24:34
Month *is* an outstanding book. And it may be because of this that his other works don’t receive so much attention. The two I’ve read have a much more humorous edge, but there are hidden depths with him always, I feel.
As for Widmerpool – well, it has to be a Powell reference I think. A Question of Upbringing was 1951 and this was seventies, so Powell got there first!
Jun 07, 2020 @ 17:32:46
Never been a teacher, but I don’t think Carr would be too successful now with the bureaucrats and testers. One of his annual springtime rituals was to lead the children at his school round a cherry orchard chanting Housman’s “Loveliest of trees…” and he’d have impromptu sports days where everyone won. He also maintained that the most important thing with primary school children was to ensure they could read when they left.
If I remember rightly, while the language used to describe the SEN class may be prejudiced and dated, Carr – and Harpole – does show genuine human sympathy with them and Miss Tollemache. I wonder whether the Widmerpool family derive from Charles Causley (another primary school teacher)’s poem “Timothy Winters” – perhaps Carr decided to improve the family name, but kept the opening letters.
Jun 09, 2020 @ 10:02:58
Modern bureaucrats would hate him, yes, but I think a lot of teachers would rather prefer his approach! As for the SEN children, you’re quite correct – the terminology is wrong, but the approach spot on and both Harpole and his author improve the situation for all concerned in a lovely way.
Interestingly, Widmerpool is also a village in Nottinghamshire…
Jun 07, 2020 @ 18:14:21
Jun 07, 2020 @ 19:18:44
I still haven’t read any J L Carr though I have A Month on the Country tbr. I really love the sound of this, and feel I have read an enthusiastic review of it somewhere else at some point.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 19:32:56
I think you’d love A Month in the Country Ali – and find much of this book quite familiar… ;D
Jun 07, 2020 @ 23:03:19
I loved Month when I read it, but like another poster up thread, I hadn’t really thought about his other titles. Oh, and I’m in education too but at the higher ed/university level. Thank you to the teachers of K-12 and daycare. You set up a strong foundation upon which college profs can build. 😃
Jun 08, 2020 @ 09:18:26
Month is so well known and highly regarded – justly so. But it’s a shame that his other works get less attention because they really are wonderful reading, and very funny.
Jun 07, 2020 @ 23:05:33
Sorry -also meant to add this: my mum in England is a retired primary/elem school headmistress/principal. The school in the photo is almost identical to the school where my mum taught. Funny!
Jun 08, 2020 @ 09:18:58
How strange! It struck me as a very typical school building of its time and type – I’ve seen many about like it!
Jun 08, 2020 @ 07:58:39
Just skimming this for now as it’s a book I’d really like to read and I’d rather not know too much about it in advance. ‘Joyous’ is all I need to know for now! So glad you enjoyed it.
Jun 08, 2020 @ 09:16:47
It’s great fun, Jacqui, and as you loved Steeple Sinderby I’m sure you’ll love this too!
Jun 08, 2020 @ 08:41:59
I’m another fan of A Month in the Country. While I have no school ties whatsoever it still sounds like fun.
Jun 08, 2020 @ 09:16:19
Month is a very special book, definitely. Carr’s other work is different, but from the same pen. And very, very funny!
Jun 09, 2020 @ 10:52:20
This sounds like a good’un! I’ve had a mixed run with Carr – favourite obviously Month in the Country, though A Day in Summer is brilliant – and then a couple that were either forgettable or totally confusing. But will definitely keep reading him and this one sounds like one to look out for.
Jun 09, 2020 @ 11:20:36
It’s a fun read, and very much captures its time too. I’d recommend Steeple Sinderby as well even if you don’t like football (and I don’t) – just as good. I definitely want to explore more…
Jun 10, 2020 @ 09:48:48
I’m due to read A Month in the Country in the next few weeks – one of the few who hasn’t read it before! So Harpole sounds like an ideal follow up – ex-teacher that I am!
Jun 10, 2020 @ 10:22:51
I had only read it fairly recently, and it certainly lived up to its hype. His other books are unlike it, but somehow like it – I can’t put it more clearly but obviously from the same pen. An excellent author!
Jun 11, 2020 @ 18:50:46
Ah, the mysterious process of selecting “the Next”. It’s impossible to predict.
Carr’s a writer I’ve been meaning to try, just once, let alone three times. He just seems like a sharp observer and a sensitive soul. There are cult-ish teaching books in Canada, too. Funny, that.
Jun 11, 2020 @ 19:50:22
It’s hard to choose. I have nearly as much trouble deciding on which notebook to use for my next journal…
Carr’s great. Month is obviously something very special, but I love the other books of his I’ve read too. Very much underrated in my view!