A Month in the Country

J. L. Carr's beautiful portrayal of the countryside and the healing it brings, in an irresistible Little Clothbound Classics edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.

'One of the best books I've ever read' Richard Osman

'Unlike anything else in modern English literature' D.J. Taylor, Spectator

A damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life, he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future.

Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years.

Adapted into a film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh, A Month in the Country traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War.