To Serve Them All My Days Book 1 - Late Spring

To Serve Them All My Days #1

by R.F. Delderfield

This bestselling novel that inspired a legendary Masterpiece Theater presentation invokes a vivid panorama of English life and history.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Ronald Frederick Delderfield was a popular English novelist and dramatist, many of whose works have been adapted for television and are still widely read.

Several of Delderfield's historical novels and series involve young men who return from war and lead lives in England that allow the author to portray the sweep of English history and delve deeply into social history from the Edwardian era to the early 1960s.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jim Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful novel! I'm sure many a reader would find this to be "weak tea", a quiet, thoughtful story of a "wounded warrior" who, almost as form of therapy, turns to teaching in a modest, traditional boys' school. But for me, this is a book to soothe the soul. A welcome respite from ugliness, greed, violence, deceit, political chauvinism and all the other plagues of our world. It's about fundamentally good people doing useful, honest work to make their corner of the world a better place by helping boys and young men find their way in life. If all of this sounds overly idealistic, I suppose it is; one can only hope that somewhere in our world today, such a school may exist.
Although its subject matter is entirely different from that of books by Nevil Shute, I could not help being reminded of Shute's novels: their values, their salt-of-the earth characters.
To my great regret, I've not been able to locate a copy of the Book 2 sequel "The Headmaster", so I shall just have to leave David, the widowed schoolmaster at this point in his career and hope that he succeeds in the rest of his days at Bamfylde School.

[Leanne Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this book after thirty years. It was just as satisfying the second time around.

[Outlander · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only criticism of these books (no 1 Late Spring and the following book, no 2 The Headmaster) is that it's so very obviously written by an Englishman as opposed to a Brit - a distinction that eludes the English in general and is always clearly seen by the Welsh, Irish and Scots.

When I was about 2 chapters in I thought is was just a rehash of James Hilton's 'Goodbye Mr Chips' which was set from the end of Victoria's reign till the end of Mr Chips life, but it's a different message. As a slice of fiction it's also a slightly dated 'stiff upper lip' tale but with a winner of a message of history repeating itself down the ages and primarily that war is not all glory but an abomination. It's not fashionable to say that the world is heading down the same road as the time of the novel(s), but the world is doing just that, right now.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the easiest read. . .

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read