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Harpole & Foxberrow, General Publishers
Paperback; 2018 reprint (first published in 1992). Signs of a little shelfwear to the spine. Small amount of penned writing on the closing blank page. The binding is sound and all text remains clear. CM
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
52 people want to read
About the author
J.L. Carr
73 books176 followersCarr was born in Thirsk Junction, Carlton Miniott, Yorkshire, into a Wesleyan Methodist family. His father Joseph, the eleventh son of a farmer, went to work for the railways, eventually becoming a station master for the North Eastern Railway. Carr was given the same Christian name as his father and the middle name Lloyd, after David Lloyd George, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. He adopted the names Jim and James in adulthood. His brother Raymond, who was also a station master, called him Lloyd.
Carr's early life was shaped by failure. He attended the village school at Carlton Miniott. He failed the scholarship exam, which denied him a grammar school education, and on finishing his school career he also failed to gain admission to teacher training college. Interviewed at Goldsmiths' College, London, he was asked why he wanted to be a teacher. Carr answered: "Because it leaves so much time for other pursuits." He was not accepted. Over forty years later, after his novel The Harpole Report was a critical and popular success, he was invited to give a talk at Goldsmiths'. He replied that the college once had its chance of being addressed by him.
He worked for a year as an unqualified teacher — one of the lowest of the low in English education — at South Milford Primary School, where he became involved in a local amateur football team which was startlingly successful that year. This experience he developed into the novel How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup. He then successfully applied to a teacher training college in Dudley. In 1938 he took a year out from his teaching career to work as an exchange teacher in Huron, South Dakota in the Great Plains. Much of the year was a struggle to survive in what was a strangely different culture to him; his British salary converted into dollars was pitifully inadequate to meet American costs of living. This experience gave rise to his novel The Battle of Pollocks Crossing.
At the end of his year in the USA Carr continued his journey westward and found himself travelling through the Middle East and the Mediterranean as the Second World War loomed. He arrived in France in September 1939 and reached England, where he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force. He was trained as an RAF photographer and stationed in West Africa, later serving in Britain as an intelligence officer, an experience he translated into fiction with A Season in Sinji.
At the end of the War he married Sally (Hilda Gladys Sexton) and returned to teaching. He was appointed headmaster of Highfields Primary School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, a post he filled from 1952 to 1967 in a typically idiosyncratic way which earned the devotion of staff and pupils alike. He returned to Huron, South Dakota, in 1957 to teach again on an exchange visit, when he wrote and published himself a social history of The Old Timers of Beadle County.
In 1967, having written two novels, he retired from teaching to devote himself to writing. He produced and published from his own Quince Tree Press a series of 'small books' designed to fit into a pocket: some of them selections from English poets, others brief monographs about historical events, or works of reference. In order to encourage children to read, each of the "small books" was given two prices, the lower of which applied only to children. As a result, Carr received several letters from adults in deliberately childish writing in an attempt to secure the discount.
He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the parish church of Saint Faith at Newton in the Willows, which had been vandalised and was threatened with redundancy. Carr, who appointed himself its guardian, came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice, and higher church authorities, in his attempts to save the church. The building was saved, but his crusade was also a failure in that redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre.
Carr's early life was shaped by failure. He attended the village school at Carlton Miniott. He failed the scholarship exam, which denied him a grammar school education, and on finishing his school career he also failed to gain admission to teacher training college. Interviewed at Goldsmiths' College, London, he was asked why he wanted to be a teacher. Carr answered: "Because it leaves so much time for other pursuits." He was not accepted. Over forty years later, after his novel The Harpole Report was a critical and popular success, he was invited to give a talk at Goldsmiths'. He replied that the college once had its chance of being addressed by him.
He worked for a year as an unqualified teacher — one of the lowest of the low in English education — at South Milford Primary School, where he became involved in a local amateur football team which was startlingly successful that year. This experience he developed into the novel How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup. He then successfully applied to a teacher training college in Dudley. In 1938 he took a year out from his teaching career to work as an exchange teacher in Huron, South Dakota in the Great Plains. Much of the year was a struggle to survive in what was a strangely different culture to him; his British salary converted into dollars was pitifully inadequate to meet American costs of living. This experience gave rise to his novel The Battle of Pollocks Crossing.
At the end of his year in the USA Carr continued his journey westward and found himself travelling through the Middle East and the Mediterranean as the Second World War loomed. He arrived in France in September 1939 and reached England, where he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force. He was trained as an RAF photographer and stationed in West Africa, later serving in Britain as an intelligence officer, an experience he translated into fiction with A Season in Sinji.
At the end of the War he married Sally (Hilda Gladys Sexton) and returned to teaching. He was appointed headmaster of Highfields Primary School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, a post he filled from 1952 to 1967 in a typically idiosyncratic way which earned the devotion of staff and pupils alike. He returned to Huron, South Dakota, in 1957 to teach again on an exchange visit, when he wrote and published himself a social history of The Old Timers of Beadle County.
In 1967, having written two novels, he retired from teaching to devote himself to writing. He produced and published from his own Quince Tree Press a series of 'small books' designed to fit into a pocket: some of them selections from English poets, others brief monographs about historical events, or works of reference. In order to encourage children to read, each of the "small books" was given two prices, the lower of which applied only to children. As a result, Carr received several letters from adults in deliberately childish writing in an attempt to secure the discount.
He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the parish church of Saint Faith at Newton in the Willows, which had been vandalised and was threatened with redundancy. Carr, who appointed himself its guardian, came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice, and higher church authorities, in his attempts to save the church. The building was saved, but his crusade was also a failure in that redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 22, 2014
Now, I'm a great admirer of J L Carr. If pressed, I would probably plump for A Month in the Country as my favourite novel of all time. I've loved How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers won the FA Cup, and thought that The Harpole Report was a very classy comic novel, but Harpole and Foxberrow, Carr's final book, and a sort of sequel to The Harpole Report left me very disappointed. Much of the story mirrors Carr's own odyssey from headmaster to independent publisher, and I expect that many of the side swipes at many elements of the book world are borne of that experience. But the satire is too broad, the story too episodic and random, the whole thing too muddled to really work.
February 28, 2024
By mimicking the arcane, Carr's last novel becomes it. All the footnotes may amplify the sense of the publishing house's cultish craft; so too the intertextual references to Carr's body of work; but it doesn't half make for difficult reading at times.
Had I not read the rest of Carr's slim novels I am fairly sure this would have been a 1*. Even now, it's only Carr's undiminished energy that saves it. There are some good self-deprecating moments. The jokes about confected novels by 'Jeffrey Amis' and reprints of Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' (elsewhere 'Book of Satyrs') work well enough at first, even if it palls on repetition. Carr always feels like he is enjoying his own jokes, which allows the reader in. 'Harpole' feels a little like a messy kid who has made a mud pie and is grinning eagerly for parental approval. Carr shares the glint, the race-around energy, and the hit-and-miss eccentric quips.
Not that the book itself presents like a mud pie. The earnestness of Carr's belief in his own work is most successfully represented by the care taken over the commissioned prints. Characters joke in the novel about a tiny publishers called the Quince Tree Press, but front pages too suggest he took the publisher's mantle deadly seriously. The book includes a brief biography of the author, notes on the illustrations, and a facimile handwritten frontispiece.
My copy claims to be one of 4,000 printed. It seems hard to credit that an author twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1980, 1985) should ten years later be writing (willfully) in such relative obscurity. I wish I could say it was unmerited but this is deservedly a collector's rarity.
Had I not read the rest of Carr's slim novels I am fairly sure this would have been a 1*. Even now, it's only Carr's undiminished energy that saves it. There are some good self-deprecating moments. The jokes about confected novels by 'Jeffrey Amis' and reprints of Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' (elsewhere 'Book of Satyrs') work well enough at first, even if it palls on repetition. Carr always feels like he is enjoying his own jokes, which allows the reader in. 'Harpole' feels a little like a messy kid who has made a mud pie and is grinning eagerly for parental approval. Carr shares the glint, the race-around energy, and the hit-and-miss eccentric quips.
Not that the book itself presents like a mud pie. The earnestness of Carr's belief in his own work is most successfully represented by the care taken over the commissioned prints. Characters joke in the novel about a tiny publishers called the Quince Tree Press, but front pages too suggest he took the publisher's mantle deadly seriously. The book includes a brief biography of the author, notes on the illustrations, and a facimile handwritten frontispiece.
My copy claims to be one of 4,000 printed. It seems hard to credit that an author twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1980, 1985) should ten years later be writing (willfully) in such relative obscurity. I wish I could say it was unmerited but this is deservedly a collector's rarity.
July 26, 2024
Having enjoyed J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country, I thought I’d try another book by him – Harpole & Foxberrow General Publishers. Not the snappiest title ever for a novel, but it’s a very entertaining, offbeat tale of the publishing world, somewhere between satire and documentary.
Some parts of this book are very funny, particularly where the author skewers the pretentiousness and deviousness of the publishing industry.
The book rings true as it is based on J.L. Carr’s experience of publishing, including setting up his own publishing company in exasperation at the poor treatment often meted out to authors by the major publishers.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the publishing world.
Some parts of this book are very funny, particularly where the author skewers the pretentiousness and deviousness of the publishing industry.
The book rings true as it is based on J.L. Carr’s experience of publishing, including setting up his own publishing company in exasperation at the poor treatment often meted out to authors by the major publishers.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the publishing world.
August 4, 2024
Picked up a signed copy from Hidcote's second hand bookshop for a VERY reasonable price. I had enjoyed A Month in the Country and thought 'why not' to giving this book a try. I'm so glad I did. It is bonkers in a very good way and so very different to the more famous book. It pokes fun at so many areas of life and so many types of people. In particular, it laughs at the world of authors and publishers. The only sad note was the fate of the wallpainting uncovered in A Month in the Country!
If you like A Month in the Country and books of that sort only, then this is for you. If you like a variety of styles including satire, then try it.
If you like A Month in the Country and books of that sort only, then this is for you. If you like a variety of styles including satire, then try it.
April 10, 2022
2.5 stars
November 30, 2013
"The narrator of the story is Hetty Beauchamp, who describes how George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow returned from working at a teacher-training college in Sinji to establish a small provincial publishing firm."
"Two old friends, George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow decide to take over a failing printing works. Harpole is a mild and easily-led ex-headmaster who is rather dominated by the stronger character of Miss Foxberrow. Their list of titles upon taking over the firm is, to say the least, unexciting. They include 'Jordans Bank Church Organ'; 'The Bag Sinderby Church Choir's fatal Noctambulation together with Thos. Leaf's Miraculous Salvation'; Barset Spectres & Apparations'; and 'Pleasure Domes of Barset'(among others of the same ilk.) They set about getting a stronger list and contact a past acquaintance, one Shutlanger, who supplies them with an evangelical text - 'The Story for the English'. This is an unexpected and run-away success, with attendant and unfortunate side-effects. They also get hold of a series of 'bodice-ripper' novels, written by a past fellow-teacher of Harpole, Grace Pintle.
"Things go well until the office of the Procurator-General for Printed Works contacts the firm and begins to demand free copies of all publications to be sent to the various copyright libraries. Miss Foxberrow refuses and this eventually leads to the closure of the firm. Before this Harpole is put on trial before the terrifying Mr Fangfoss.
This is a book full of in-jokes, for anyone at all interested in books and/or publishing. It is also of relevance to local readers, who will recognize in the names Harpole and Shutlanger (plus others) the names of villages of Northamptonshire. As with all of J.L. Carr's books printed by his own Quince Tree Press, this is a beautiful production. The woodcuts and other illustrations as well as the general lay-out could not have been bettered."
I was bemused as I read this slim volume. Was it fiction, or non-fiction? The description of a real publishing house, or the creation of an incautious mind? In the end of course, it was obvious that it couldn't be a version of reality -- much too silly and far-fetched (ignoring, of course, the old saw that Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.) I'd not read this author before, so I didn't catch most of the in-jokes and certainly missed out the Northamptonshire village names.
I'm game to read the other of his books, and then perhaps return to this one, equipped with the background to savor the in-jokes.
"Two old friends, George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow decide to take over a failing printing works. Harpole is a mild and easily-led ex-headmaster who is rather dominated by the stronger character of Miss Foxberrow. Their list of titles upon taking over the firm is, to say the least, unexciting. They include 'Jordans Bank Church Organ'; 'The Bag Sinderby Church Choir's fatal Noctambulation together with Thos. Leaf's Miraculous Salvation'; Barset Spectres & Apparations'; and 'Pleasure Domes of Barset'(among others of the same ilk.) They set about getting a stronger list and contact a past acquaintance, one Shutlanger, who supplies them with an evangelical text - 'The Story for the English'. This is an unexpected and run-away success, with attendant and unfortunate side-effects. They also get hold of a series of 'bodice-ripper' novels, written by a past fellow-teacher of Harpole, Grace Pintle.
"Things go well until the office of the Procurator-General for Printed Works contacts the firm and begins to demand free copies of all publications to be sent to the various copyright libraries. Miss Foxberrow refuses and this eventually leads to the closure of the firm. Before this Harpole is put on trial before the terrifying Mr Fangfoss.
This is a book full of in-jokes, for anyone at all interested in books and/or publishing. It is also of relevance to local readers, who will recognize in the names Harpole and Shutlanger (plus others) the names of villages of Northamptonshire. As with all of J.L. Carr's books printed by his own Quince Tree Press, this is a beautiful production. The woodcuts and other illustrations as well as the general lay-out could not have been bettered."
I was bemused as I read this slim volume. Was it fiction, or non-fiction? The description of a real publishing house, or the creation of an incautious mind? In the end of course, it was obvious that it couldn't be a version of reality -- much too silly and far-fetched (ignoring, of course, the old saw that Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.) I'd not read this author before, so I didn't catch most of the in-jokes and certainly missed out the Northamptonshire village names.
I'm game to read the other of his books, and then perhaps return to this one, equipped with the background to savor the in-jokes.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews