A Month in the Country

This short but wonderful novel by JL Carr is set in the summer of 1920 in the Yorkshire village of Oxgodby. Birkin, a survivor of World War One, is tasked with uncovering a religious painting in the church, long covered up by whitewash. Living in the church belfry he finds himself drawn into local life, taken under the wing of Stationmaster Ellerbeck.

He meets a fellow veteran in the shape of Moon, an archaeologist who is trying to uncover the tomb of a long dead ancestor of a Miss Hebron, whose will and its stipulations has brought both these men to Oxgodby.

And then there is the uptight vicar Keach and his wife Alice. Keach clearly resents these interlopers, but Miss Hebron’s bequest to the church relies upon them completing their tasks. As for Alice Keach, over that long hot summer an unspoken attraction between her and Birkin grows up.

All this is told by Birkin in flashback, writing of that idyllic time when the days were hot, the people friendly and the work fulfilling. He ruminates on missed chances and opportunities, of what might have been. But in 1920 the world and the choices you could safely make, were very different.

Carr’s novel is a timeless classic about the simple joy of a craftsman doing his job, and the connections he makes that helped him heal the psychological scars left by a bloody conflict. It is superbly written, moving, full of nostalgia for a world long gone and in the end very affecting.