The Choir: A Novel

Joanna Trollope

May 2011 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

In the gentle precinct of Aldminster Cathedral, crisis loomed.  The urbane and worldly Dean (Purdey guns and the regular arrival of a delivery van from Berry Brothers) wanted nothing so much as to restore and beautify his beloved Cathedral--even if it meant sacrificing the Choir School to pay for it.  Alexander Troy, Headmaster of the school, a conscientious man, somewhat out of his depth with his elusive and poetical wife (once seen walking barefoot in the dew across the Cathedral Close) was determined that nothing and no-one-certainly not the overbearing Dean-should destroy the Choir.

As the rift widened into Machiavellian dimensions, many others found themselves caught in the schism--Leo Beckford, brilliant but wayward organist, repelling the adoration of the Dean's dreadful daughter--the gentle, left-wing Bishop, trying to soothe the angry protagonists--Sally Ashworth, mother of the leading chorister, fighting loneliness and an erring and absent husband.  Each frail and human dilemma took its part in the greater turmoil of Chapter and Close and the final battle for the survival of the Choir.

Ratings and reviews

Delightful, riveting account of the inner workings of a cathedral church; the eternal struggle of the higher arts( in this case, a renowned Boy's Choir) against the modern world' s historical ignorance and misplaced use of money.

The choir

About the author

Joanna Trollope has been writing for more than 30 years. Her enormously successful contemporary works of fiction, several of which have been televised, include Other People's Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South, Brother & Sister, Second Honeymoon, and Friday Nights. She was awarded the OBE in 1996 for services to literature.