Brian E’s Comments (group member since Jul 25, 2017)

Brian E’s comments from the Reading the Chunksters group.

Nike wrote: " How can I make you change your mind? Why not vary the editions every second chapter? 🙃 I do understand your predicament, I recently read "Two cities" and thought it difficult to choose from my two different editions that I have. I solved it by letting my partner read one and I the other. If that counts as a solution.."

Nothing to be done. Truthfully the deciding factor for my decision to skip reading Alone in Berlin back for the 2023 Goodreads Group Read is the same as for my decision to skip it for your current Buddy Read. Lack of time. I have a lot planned already in the next few months, none I want to jettison.

I will be reading these books as part of series in GR groups or in a series I started due to a GR group:
The Plains of Cement by Patrick Hamilton
Party Going by Henry Green
The Dark Horse by Rumer Godden
With No Crying by Celia Fremlin
The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust (a Chunkster)
Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith
The Sum of Things by Olivia Manning
Miss Mapp by E.F. Benson

and also reads of these books through June:
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn
The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin (a Chunkster)
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (a Chunkster)

So much time and so little to read.

Hugh wrote: "I think Every Man Dies Alone is the same book as Alone in Berlin."

Yes, it is. Hence the wink ;)

I spent much of 2023 watching the prices of these two editions in my Amazon cart and Blackwell's wish list while trying to decide which of these two to buy for the August 2023 Never Too Late To Read Classic GR Group's read of Fallada as its German author of the month:


I liked the Penguin edition of Alone in Berlin because it matched my copy of and the title would help identify the book with the author in the future. I also much prefer having art rather than photos of people on my book covers.
On the other hand, I prefer the more poetic nature of the melancholic Every Man Dies Alone title.

I finally solved my dilemma by deciding not to participate in the Fallada read.

Nike wrote: "I'm about to start reading Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Maybe some of you are interested in a group or buddy reading? Different editions are between 495 and 766 p..."

As I am trying to read In Search of Lost Time, The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy I don't think I have time for another long book at this time.
I have read Fallada's Little Man, What Now? and have considered reading him again. But, if I do read Fallada, I think I'd choose to read Every Man Dies Alone instead. It's only 529 pages ;)

This is my review of To Serve Them All My Days: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Hugh wrote: "Thanks for all the hard work you have done on the summaries Brian"

I'm glad to assist the Moderator as long as I don't have to be the Moderator. I had recently led a discussion of a Trollope novel in the Reading the 20th Century group and found that doing the review necessary for writing summaries helped me better understand what I had read. Due to this, I was willing to do them here.
However, doing the summaries does mean you devote about double the usual time toward a book. I felt that, even if you did get hold of a copy of the book, it would have been really tough for you to devote single time let alone double time to reading the book. As I had nominated it and wanted to read it, I was both willing to and somewhat obligated to summarize here. I felt that writing the summaries was valuable as an aid to me regardless of whether anyone else read them. So not a waste of time at all.

Hugh, you could further thank me by telling what you thought of the Booker winner and a few of your favorites from the shortlist.
EDIT: Hugh, I've read your review of Prophet Song and will likely read it sometime next year.

Cat, I addressed your question in the Week 10 discussion.

Cat wrote: "Brian E wrote: "[...] as I think she might have led him astray if he had let her." I'm puzzling over this - Please would you help me to understand this angle?"

I'm addressing this question from Week 8 in this Week 10 discussion so I don't have to use spoilers for some of it. I hope this helps you understand what I was trying to say.

My personal opinion and feeling was that second wife Chris was more self-focused in her advice to David than the first wife Beth was. I thought Beth helped guide David in making better decisions, one that would best effectuate HIS values and goals. Chris had so many of her own strong personal opinions on things, I think her advice would have tried to guide David into decisions that reflected HER values and goals rather than helped David effectuate his own. I say this knowing that Chris did know and bow to David's Bamfylde-first attitude. But that's on the "big picture level" On the "small picture" individual situation level, Chris had opinions on the correct result and pronounced them even knowing it might conflict with David's.
Two examples:
1. When former student Christopherson came to announce he was going to help the Republicans in Spain, Chris jumped in with 'good for you' encouraging him rather than letting David handle the counseling. He was David's student not hers.
2. Rather than merely coaching Sax and Beth into how to approach David to get his blessing on their early marriage, Chris actively encouraged them in the early marriage.

Thus, the short answer is that I thought Chris might lead David into decisions reflecting Chris's values and goals. By using the term "Astray" I meant in a direction than did not meet David's own goals and values.
David knew that about Chris and accepted them and that's why things between them worked. It was David's long-time sage Howarth that gave him the wise advise to give Chris her own arena, the Cradle, where she could be kept busy effectuating her own values and goals in her arena and be too busy to get involved in David's business.

I thought it interesting that Julia and David agree it is best not to tell their son Charles "Clark" of his true parentage. My guess is that if this happened at 21th Century Bamfylde they would NOT choose to keep it a secret. Contemporary mores favor such disclosure, at least when the child is old enough. Another contemporary factor favoring disclosure is the easier access to information via technology. Non-disclosure tends to cause more problems due to the child's own discovery than early disclosure would have.

I liked the ending of the story with David bringing in Earnshaw so that he can experience what David experienced. It is an reminder of the cyclical nature of life, something that David's recollections of Britain bouncing back from previous internal bloody conflicts also relects. David comes to finally feel that somehow, even with much loss, everything comes out alright in the end.

TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS – 10th Week - PART IV, Chapters 1-3

I will put the summary in spoilers. (view spoiler)[
PART IV – RE-RUN
CHAPTER 1
SubCh.1 – Hitler is advancing in Europe and David talks with Chris about how things are turning out as she predicted. Chris was confident about the Allies’ ultimate chances; David not so much, but his students mostly shared Chris’ view. David takes over Carter’s Corps and he ‘taught them well.’ David hires a slightly crippled 32-year-old Cornishman named Heathcott to be Howarth’s replacement.
SubCh.2 – A new term starts with the addition of 50 from Carter’s school. One newcomer is Charles Sprockman, Julia Darbyshire’s boy, who quickly becomes so popular he is nicknamed ‘Clark’ as in Clark Gable. Sax Hoskins returns to ask David’s blessing on his marrying 19-year-old Grace before Christmas. David is surprised Grace chose Sax and not Winterbourne but Grace just preferred the more cheeky one. The wedding is to be soon due to Sax’s RAF commitments. Grace comes in and tells David how much she loves him and would have even married sooner but for the war. David agrees to the date of the 17th and correctly surmises that they ran how to ‘play’ him by Chris beforehand to get pointers. Later in bed, Chris says she always thought it would be Sax not Winterbourne as Sax needed Grace more and Grace needed someone to spoil. David reflects on Chris’ savvy and then all the wedding talk, as Chris points out, makes David randy.
SubCh.3 – Former student Graves-Jones dies when his ship is torpedoed and David adds his name to his book of war casualties. Grace and Sax’ wedding his held at Bamfylde at Stone Cross. Sax is in RAF uniform and Algy Herries performs the service. David’s happy he gets Grace for a last brief bit before she joins Sax wherever he gets posted. Boyer tells David he is enlisting and David convinces him to wait for now.
CHAPTER 2
SubCh.1 – Its April 1940 and Demark and Norway have fallen. British citizens, including Bamfylde staff and students, feel desolate but the evacuation at Dunkirk lifts them. David’s list of student war casualties grows as he starts adding students’ war accomplishments to the list. Briarley and Skidmore become Dunkirk casualties, Briarley after being one of those in Calais as a Dunkirk diversion. Bradshawe took his boat and helped nine out of the water at Dunkirk.
SubCh.2 - Due to its relatively safe location, Bamfylde gets a full lot of students, including 60 of Carter’s crew referred to as Minimals, for the summer term. Schoolmaster Molyneux joins the French resistance as an interpreter. Boyer feels compelled to volunteer too and David is unsuccessful at talking the 35-year-old out of it. Mrs. Hislop calls to inform David that Hislop had been shot down after being an ace pilot with at least 5 ‘certainties.’ David reflects on the loss of so many students and their role in the necessary task of battling evil that is facing them all.
CHAPTER 3
SubCh.1 – Its August of 1940 and the war is blazing, including the Battle of Britain. Four more Bamfeldians are among the many RAF losses during are killed. Towers is killed and Crispin is terribly burned, reminding David that once Crispin shoplifted in a vain attempt to get Towers’ attention. Grace departs Bamfylde to join Sax at his post in Yorkshire. David says goodbye to Boyer who departs leaving Alison with his son, newborn daughter and a newly hired Scots girl for company. Churchill, the first of the Cradlers, and Keithley, the first boy he met as headmaster, are added to the casualty list causing David to wistfully recollect. Chris announces she is pregnant again.
SubCh.2 – It’s Christmas break and David reads Spats’ letter asking for Sax address to send a belated wedding present. David can feel how hard the loss of Grace hit Spats. He reads a Julia Sprockman’s letter informing him that she is dying of cancer and he should tell her son Charles Sprockman of this fact and take care of him in the future as he is David’s son, a fact her late husband and Charles were unaware of. David decides to bow to her request not to tell Charles of his true parentage and, though Julia didn’t demand it, decides not to tell Chris either, to save her the dilemma of having to parcel out some of her affection on David’s son rather than on their son Ian. David walks toward Algy’s Thinking Post, passing the Big Hall where a concert was on and hears his 13-year-old son, responding to calls of “Get Clark and his banjo,” playing “Oh Susannah.” At the Thinking Post, it’s 90 minutes before the end of 1940 and David reflects about the status of the current war in view of its place in Britain’s history of conflicts from which, no matter the losses, “something gainful had emerged from it.” He and Chris make some tea, cuddle and await the new year, which they also let the students do, at least the awaiting part.
SubCh.3 – On New Year’s Day, David absentmindedly forgets about his interview with Earnshaw, an applicant for a schoolmaster position, and comes to it late. Earnshaw was advertised as ex-service and interested in games so David, expecting an extrovert like Irvine, is surprised to find him emaciated, haggard, grim and with a scar on his face. After talking with him, David sees himself in Earnshaw, coming to Bamfylde just out of soldiering, damaged and needing a home and purpose. David tries hard and successfully puts Earnshaw at ease by being relaxed yet effusive in his hospitality. He invites Earnshaw to stay for lunch, dinner and overnight in the Old Boys’ Presidents’ room, and sees Earnshaw someday thanking his stars for coming to Bamfylde as David had done and forgotten to do lately.
David stops at the landing to the President’s room and looks out over Bamfylde and surroundings reminiscing on all the many events, people and experiences of his 22 years at Bamfylde. David experiences “peace, of a kind that eluded him for the sixteen dismal months…easing the wounds caused by the sacrifice of boys like Briarley, Skidmore, Christopherson, Graves-Jones, Hislop, Churchill and little Keithley… He drank it all in thankfully…”
(hide spoiler)]

Nidhi wrote: "Tomorrow I will put my comment in spoilers alert tag. Right now I am using app."

Yeah. I avoid using the app as, not only is it more limited, but I am too. I'm inept at using my phone as a full-use computer. I was out of town for 3 days using the app to check in and hoped Hugh wouldn't post Week 9 while I was gone because I had no idea how to post my Word document summary via the app.
I don't think we need to stress about the unlikely possibility of anyone else starting the book getting to Week 4 yet.

TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS – 9th Week - PART VIII, Chapters 1-3
I will put the summary in spoilers. (view spoiler)[
PART VIII – PLENTITUDE
CHAPTER 1
SubCh.1 – David is entering a time of life, between his 2nd marriage and Dunkirk, that he referred to as his time of plentitude. Chris and he honeymoon in France. David is open with Chris about his relationship with Beth. Chris worries if she will be able to produce a son as she is approaching 30 and also about her ability to adjust to life at Bamfylde and a life helping to ‘mother’ the students.
SubCh.2 – Chris has a good relationship with the teachers and especially Alison, Boyer’s wife and finds herself doing more mothering as circumstances have Bamfylde accepting younger students, lowering its average age by 2 years. Chris has opinions about Bamfylde methods and often offers them to David. David believes in tradition and she doesn’t. She thought about candidature but did not request one since, despite David’s assertions, she thought it would cause problems for him. Howarth seeks Chris’ assistance in student Bradshawe’s personal problems. Chris discovers she is pregnant and tells David that this will give her a purpose, as she hadn’t had one yet.
SubCh.3 – Chris has a miscarriage. David wasn’t there, but old Rigby got Dr. Willoughby who could do little but ease her pain. Chris feels like Bamfylde was a prison where everyone but her had adapted to its routines. Chris packs a bag and drives away.
SubCh.4 – Molyneux spots Chris and tells David who at first thinks it must be a student going joyriding. Spotting her bag gone, David realizes that she left. David tracks her down and finds Chris’s car off the side of the road at the crest of the moor with her slumped in her car seat apparently asleep. David tells her that women often “get all kinds of fancies” after pregnancy. Chris says it’s really because she feels useless, but politics is no longer the answer for her. David sees Howarth who suggests that David separate the newly arrived under-elevens from the older Second Form students and hire Chris to be in charge of this group.
CHAPTER 2
SubCh.1 – David believes they have the cash and growth to make the under-elevens a growth area for Bamfylde. Chris hesitates but agrees to give it a go. The students soon call it the Cradle and it is an instant success. Chris finds enthusiasms from her childhood returning and she avidly selects the books and other tools her charges learn from. Her nurturing and wise problem solving is contrasted with the more limited abilities of the overbearing Second Form ruler, Miss Nixon. A problem with a Second Form student Hookham is resolved by putting him in the Cradle under Chris’s care where Hookham blossoms including judging a Treasure Island treasure map contest.
SubCh.2 Chris sees David as inadequate in dealing with the younger students but superb in dealing with the upper students. She joins in on one of David’s class discussion on Mussolini and impresses the students with her more hawkish perspective.
SubCh.3 – Its 1936 and British and World event affect the school atmosphere. George V dies, Edward VIII abdicates, Mussolini invades Ethiopia, Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland and purges reign in Moscow. Driscoll a near-sighted knobby -kneed often-teased boy finds his calling in cross-country. But when he loses his glasses during a meet, he runs into a “slough as thick as black treacle” and is kept from drowning by the combined efforts of several boys.
SubCh.4 – David arrives to assist in the final rescue efforts. Local farmer and former Bamfylde day student Man Dixon also assists carrying Driscoll into his farmhouse. David praises the five boys, including 2 Cradlers, who helped save Driscoll. Due to the possibility of someone like old Rigby interrupting, Chris resists David’s suggestion of a little parlor fireside nookie.
CHAPTER 3
SubCh.1 – It’s spring of ’37, and David and Chris run into an Old Boy named Christopherson when he comes visiting Bamfylde, announcing over Old Boy sherry that he is leaving Oxford to fight with the Republicans in Spain. This surprises and worries David as Christopherson was one of his most committed pacifists at school. David counsels him to return to Oxford. Then Chris walks in, guesses what Christopherson is doing and says “Good for you. You won’t get his blessing but you can count on mine.” They give him lunch, send him off and find out right before Christmas that he had been killed.
SubCh.2 – The Sixth, Fifth and even the Fourth Forms pepper David with questions about world events in class. David envisions even more growth for Bamfylde, targeting over 400 students, and gets Board approval for a new library. Chris tells David she is pregnant. Howarth gets sick and David takes over his classes. David visits Howarth at the hospital and Howarth tells him he is dying and asks him to keep it quiet and allow him to return to the school to die there. David agrees.
SubCh.3 – During the summer term, Chris, David and Barnaby spend a lot of time with Howarth. After the new term opens, Chris is rushed to the nursing home to be ready for birthing. David sees Howarth who shows him his will leaving everything, except for 200 pounds to Chris, to Bamfylde. It is about eleven thousand pounds. David has to rush to Chris at the nursing home and leaves Howarth with his picture of Amy Crispin, his long-lost love. David arrives and Chris has already given birth to a baby boy. While Chris wanted to name a boy after David, David rejects that and prefers to call him Ian, which is Howarth's first name. David rushes back to Bamfylde and finds that Howarth has died. David goes to his quarters and reads a letter from Julia Sprockman (Darbyshire). Her husband has died and she asks David to accept her son Charles as a Bamfylde student. Her late husband wanted that for Charles too.
SubCh.4 – David asks for a moment of silence for Howarth from the students in the Big Hall. Later, at the Old Boys annual London banquet, during a moment in Howarth’s memory, Old Boy Gilmour tells a story of how Howarth secretly paid for part of his education when his parents were unable to do so in order for Gilmour to remain at Bamfylde. The attendees give a standing ovation in memory of Howarth.
(hide spoiler)]

Nidhi, for the sake of anyone in the future reading this novel along with the threads you might want to consider putting the part of your post, the last two sentences, that deal with events not yet occurring by Week 4 in spoilers.

I read Of Human Bondage 18 years ago and was surprised how much I liked it. Five stars. I did enjoy and empathize with Philip Carey even though much of his personal pain is self-inflicted. He was definitely flawed, but likeable.
But I thought David was flawed too. (view spoiler)[ He could be sanctimonious, self-righteous and impetuous, traits that would have caused him to shoot himself in the foot several times if he didn't have Herries, Howarth and Beth to guide him. Luckily, he was well-trained by the time he ran into Chris as I think she might have led him astray if he had let her. Chris became a solid mate because of her complemetary skills that helped in David's weaker areas, not because she helped guide him in his major decision-making. (hide spoiler)] While I did empathize with David, I found him to be only moderately likeable.

Yeah, I agree that being a long-term politician would not be a good fit for Chris. I agree with your analysis too. I didn't think her previous attitude indicated the flexibility she'd need for the role.
Of course, her political demise works well for our storyline. Even with her freedom to marry with a pending divorce, her political life and David's career would not be able to mesh to enable them to marry. So to avoid having the storyline spin in place and let us finally get to another phase in David's personal life, something had to give.
Now to see if adding Chris into the Bamfylde equation adds some spice to Bamfylde events. Things progressing nicely for David at Bamfylde can be satisfying but makes for a snooze-inducing story after awhile. You can't keep the plot going with vignettes of carious student's incidents. With Carter, Alcock and Blunt now gone, David's going to need some other person to battle with and supply some conflict and the dramatic tension this story thrives on.

TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS – 8th Week - PART VII, Chapters 1-3
I will put the summary in spoilers. (view spoiler)[
PART VII – ISLAND IN A TORRENT
CHAPTER 1
SubCh.1 – It’s 1932 and David’s world view becomes more insular toward Bamfylde since becoming headmaster. Even in the face of the current hard economic times, David seeks and gets Algy’s support for his more aggressive plans for the school, including the new classrooms, new science lab, gym and concert hall. For funds, David starts fundraising the Old Boys at the Whitsuntide reunion. David runs into Boyer who is unhappy teaching at a school up north. David offers Boyer his old history master position at Bamfylde, which Boyer gratefully and happily accepts. Old Boy “Nun” devises a scheme of an Old Boy network of regional fundraising that pleases David immensely. After losing her last-minute appeal to David, Grace reluctantly accepts that she will be a weekly border at Challacombe Convent school in the fall.
SubCh.2 – Two student incidents during the rest of 1932. “Lackaknacker” Briggs goes truant overnight while on an escape to a local orchard and produces a wild explanation on his return. With Barnaby’s advice, David leaves it alone. “Sunsetter” Crispin is accused of shoplifting by a local merchant who leaves the school frustrated by David’s handling of the incident. David is lenient as ne’er -do-well Crispin was trying to shoplift in a futile attempt to impress the cool kids. After Crispin is saved from a possible suicide attempt, David arranges for Crispin to show off his skill at playing carols on handbells.
SubCh.3 – In the final month of 1932, Algy’s opera is a hit as is Crispin with his handbell carols. Crispin becomes known as ‘Ringer’ and is finally integrated into the Bamfylde community. Boyer arrives during the Christmas holidays, his Scottish wife Allison in tow, and has taken residence in David and Beth’s old cottage.
CHAPTER 2
SubCh.1 – It’s 1933, Chris writes that she will be getting a scholarship and will be spending 6 months on the continent and then be conducting a lecture series in the U.S., at sites from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and then back to England in early 1934 to run in a likely 1935 election. The economy has David starting commercial courses in shorthand, typing and bookkeeping at Bamfylde, which could also serve to bring Grace back sooner. David pays for an indoor privy as Chad and Alison Boyer’s wedding present.
SubCh.2 – Carter arrives for Sports Day and speaks of how successful his school is at 200+ students. Mrs. Hilsop talks of how pleased she is with her son’s situation and that Alsop may have done him a good turn in expelling him. David meets former students at Whitsuntide such as the Kassava brothers, Blades and Stoker Monk. The new hall was almost finished by Opening Day and new classrooms were started. David visits Beth and Joan’s gravesite, where they had lain since 1925, and enters the nearby church. He is surprised by Chris, who presents David with Ulrich Meyer, a Jewish refugee child she found in Munich and is charged with caring for, and who she wants to enroll in Bamfylde. As she is only in for a quick visit, Chris departs.
SubCh.3 – David enlists ‘Stilts’ to help integrate Meyer with the Sunsetters by having him discretely spread the word about how Meyer witnessed his father being kicked to death in front of him. The students give Meyer respect and his status is a catalyst for school discussions about the events in Germany and its withdrawal from the League of Nations. A student suggests that some of the anti-Jewish sentiment is in reaction to Jewish war profiteers in WWI. David gets Ulrich to observe local customs including sending unscreened letters. Chris sends a letter thanking David for Ulrich’s successful integration at Bamfylde and says she’ll return in the spring and stand in the Openshawe South constituency, a fairly safe Labour seat.
CHAPTER 3
SubCh.1 – It’s January 1934 and a new term sees David surprisingly taking command over the Corps when a vacancy occurs. David is deservedly needled for taking on the role. David and Grace go to Wales for David mothers funeral. David invites his brother-in-law to take a groundsman position at Bamfylde so he and David’s sister can get a better life. His sister days they’ll think it over.
SubCh.2 – Chris returns to interview with the Openshawe selection committee. David meets her afterwards and discovers that another candidate received a unanimous endorsement, likely due to Chris’s less than pacifist views toward containing Germany derived from her actually witnessing things. Chris brings David into the country woods and tells him that she will be getting a divorce, due to her having an investigator catch her husband in a liaison. She is willing to marry him and settle at Bamfylde. David is thrilled and wants to celebrate.
SubCh.3 – Summer term flies by. Grace accepts having a stepmother like an intelligent adult rather than an adolescent. On Sports Day, Chris comes to Bamfylde and she and Grace bond while Grace shows her every ‘odd corner of the place.’ David sees Chris off and walks in the countryside reflecting on his past and the near future.
(hide spoiler)]

Nidhi wrote: "When i started reading this book, i guessed its covers a war and a school, but in this section we are on threshold of Great Depression and will soon be entering the second war. Much like a history ..."

When it started I didn't really think about what period of time this would cover, but I soon realized it was going to go on for some years. I still don't know how long it will go on, but I prefer to be surprised.
I do like learning history, through fiction about the times and especially learning the social history through fiction written in the times.

TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS – 7th Week - PART VI, Chapters 2-4
I will put the summary in spoilers. (view spoiler)[
PART VI – CUT AND COME AGAIN
CHAPTER 2
SubCh.1 – Christine and David’s idyllic vacation is disrupted when Christine, upon hearing news that the Labour PM has sold out to the Tories to retain some authority, runs back to her constituency. As she leaves, Christine promises David they will marry someday and replies to his request to phone her, ‘Phone every night if you can afford it.”
SubCh.2 – Brigadier Cooper informs David the Board meets with both David and Alcock the next day. His assessment is that it “Might go any way.” David meets with the Board and the session was brief with Alderman Blunt as questioning as expected. It left David “baffled and irritated.” That night, while David is up unable to get to sleep, Grace wakes him with news that Towser in breathing is labored. David lets Grace sit up with Towser and while he’s making tea around midnight, Alcock’s butler Old Rigby knocks on the door with concerns that Alcock was locked in his lit study something he never does that late. Rigby craftily opens the door and David goes in alone to find Alcock slumped over his desk in the midst of writing a resignation letter, although he died before he could write the word ‘resignation.’ David has Rigby call Dr. Willoughby, carries Alcock’s body to his bedroom and pockets the letter. Willoughby shows up diagnoses it as angina caused and David hands him pills that Rigby had found and the letter.
CHAPTER 3
SubCh.1 – Alcock had been seeing a London heart specialist who gave him the pills and had left South Africa due to his health, matter he had kept concealed from the Board. He was cremated and his ashes sent to Cape Town. He left two grown sons. Algy gets appointed acting headmaster and David avoids any talk of applying for the position. Some students craft a wooden headstone for Towser and they, Grace and David place it on his grave.
SubCh.2 – David goes to be with Christine before her election. Christine endures hecklers and interruptions during her speech on-stage at the evening meeting and leaves it in tears. She invites David up but, as her status as a married women means their relationship endangers both in her electoral prospects and his headmaster prospects, she thinks they should call it off. David decides this is not the time and place to argue with her so he stays with her but plans to leave before daylight
SubCh.3 – David gets up at 5 a.m. to depart leaving a note telling her that no matter how the election goes, love is all that matters.
SubCh.4 – Back at Bamfylde, Barnaby shows David a copy of the Saturday Times with a rave review of his book The Royal Tigress as a “highly readable account of the War of the Roses.” Copies of his book arrive and David’s signing copies for student Heffling, Barnaby, Howarth and his mom when Chris calls. Chris is thrilled with David’s book reception and reads him one other over the phone when David suggests he could be a full-time writer. Chris says that wouldn’t make him happy and ends the call.
CHAPTER 4
SubCh.1 – The Labour party suffers losses in the election but Chris makes a strong showing in a losing effort, maintaining hopes for future candidacies. The rest of the term passes smoothly with Algy getting Bamfylde back on course. Sir Rufus shows up and Algy tells David that Sir Rufus wants a word with him. Sir Rufus shares a Burmese cheroot, discusses David’s previous application for headmaster, reveals Alcock’s dying almost-resignation letter and offers David the position of acting headmaster until the next Board meeting’s vote to confirm David in that position, which he asserts is “a near certainty.” Fourteen years after he first sat in the room, David accepts Sir Rufus’s ‘unofficial’ offer. When asked for his conditions, David asks to be able to at least teach a class and be his own man in politics, conditions which Sir Rufus accepts with the proviso that David pledge not to embarrass the school on home ground.
SubCh.2 – David meets Chris outside Piccadilly Underground for Christmas Eve dinner. Grace, at 11 years 8 months, was at Grannie Marwood’s for the holiday. Chris tells David her plan to take an offer of a year at Montreal University where she can get a Canadian degree in a year. She thinks it is great for her politically, giving her an edge on most candidates, and good for them both personally to put their relationship on hiatus for a year so he can immerse himself in his job and not have to worry about a public scandal. They say goodbye.
David returns to immerse himself in the winter term at Bamfylde. David has plans. He ponders having student discipline determined by a Council of Peers, tapping Old Boys’ funds to build a gymnasium. He meets with the Bursar who backs his suggestion of a much-needed fee increase. He meets with the new music master Renshaw-Smith who whole-heartedly backs his proposal to revive the Choral Society and the annual Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He convinces Howarth to be Old Boys secretary. Howarth tells him how Willoughby and Algy gave Sir Rufus the Alcock letter and plied him with port while convincing him of David’s worth. David calls expelled student Hislop’s mother and pleases her with an offer to accept her son’s return to Bamfylde.
Students arrive for the winter term. David tells Grace she’ll have to expand and hold a school-wide new boys tea. (hide spoiler)]

I first ran into the practice of "ninging" in British public schools in Robert Graves's memoir Goodbye to All That. The early part of that memoir dealt with Graves' boarding school experience where Graves portrays a practice much like the one described here.
However, my impression of the 'ninging' practiced at Graves school, or at least by Graves himself, was that it was much closer to the romantic low-level homosexual practice that Alcock feared it to be than the mere male growth/bonding experience that David asserts it to be. I do remember feeling creeped out by Graves' portrayal of the practice I called it predatory.

My full comment on the subject in my review was:
" I was initially thrown off by Graves schoolboy memories, primarily the culture of predatory attachments made by older to younger students at his public school."

TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS – 6th Week - PART V, Chapters 3-5; PART VI, Chapter 1

This week's summary: (view spoiler)[
PART V
CHAPTER 3
SubCh.1 – Alcock issues an edict that all housemasters must co-operate to suppress the practice of “ninging” where senior boys engage in sentimental relationships with junior boys. Alcock considered ninging to be a euphemism for some sort of homosexual relationship and David and others were convinced that ninging, at least as practiced as Bamfylde, was harmless and often positive. Irvine, Carter and Barnaby expressed their feelings that no edict was needed but Alcott imposes a ban on any association between the senior and junior boys. By the end of the term Irvine, Old Bouncer and Rapper Gibbs resigned. David sticks around, bolstered by visits from several former students including Boyer. Carter tries to convince David to leave with him to set up his own private school. David declines and finds out Carter doesn’t need his financial contribution but still wants him to come with as a partner
SubCh.2 – David had thought Howarth was apathetic but finds that Howarth lent the money to Carter in order to make David feel less obligated to go with Carter. Howarth wants David to lay low and wait Alcock out and eventually take over, which Howarth believes will be only a few years, where he thinks David could get the place back to form in a month, and with the benefit of Alcock’s surface improvements such as the latrines.
CHAPTER 4
SubCh.1 – David and Grace go visit David’s family for the Christmas holidays and find that the mining communities are being radicalized by unemployment, even with a Socialist government. His brother-on-law takes him to a campaign speech forum and he meets Christine Forster a Yorkshire lass looking for political experience to be a Labour party candidate. He finds that her cousin went to Bamfylde and she has even visited there. Chritine and David hit it off but he finds that she is married but separated with her husband in Quebec Canada and unwilling to divorce because he is Roman Catholic.
SubCh.2 – Group activities are wilting at Bamfylde due to Alcock’s complete focus on academics and test-taking and total disinterest in non-academic matters. The whole school felt listless. David then gets a letter from Christine saying she will be a candidate in a rural Midlands area and asks him to come and support her on the platform at a candidate adoption forum. David comes and decides to speak on her behalf at the adoption meeting. David gives a rousing speech to great applause that has Labour officials asking whether he’s consider being a candidate. Christine is quite pleased.
SubCh.3 – David and Christine spend the next day driving around her constituency. They kiss and Christine tells David she learned all about his past, including his war experiences and what happened with Beth. When she sees David off on the train back, Christine invites David to visit her when she finds a place in her constituency and then asks if she’d be welcome if she ever drove over to Bamfylde. David is quite receptive to the idea.
CHAPTER 5
SubCh.1 – Alcock calls David to his office during class to chastise him about a newspaper report on his campaign speech for Christine. David resists Alcock’s suggestions of improper behavior and Alcock suggests that, due to their relationship impasse, David spends the remainder of the term contemplating resignation. David says he won’t ever resign, will speak at any political platform he chooses and will fight any attempts to seek his resignation.
SubCh.2 – David finds out that his book “The Royal Tigress” will be published. Christine writes David enclosing the same clip that Alcock had and kidding David about stealing her thunder.
SubCh.3 – The book deal has David approaching his Bamfylde work cheerfully, which Howarth and Barnaby comment favorably on. Coming back from a horse/pony ride with Grace, David finds Brigadier Cooper who warns David that Alcock was after his scalp and could get it as Alcock, besides David’s political activity has expressed concerns to the Board about David’s overly lenient attitude to the smoking incident and Hislop’s gambling and, most importantly, David’s irresponsible teaching methods. Cooper suggests David go on the offensive.
SubCh.4 – Algy advises David on how to go on the offensive, wisely altering David’s overly aggressive tendencies. He suggests writing to Sir Rufus himself, avoid bringing up the political issue first and to instead use statistics on his student’s academic achievements to counter Alcott’s allegations of irresponsible teaching methods. Algy insists on editing a draft.

PART VI – CUT AND COME AGAIN
CHAPTER 1
SubCh.1 – David sends his letter off to Sir Rufus who is away on a long tour of India until June. Christine and David exchange twice-weekly letters often discussing politics. Sir Rufus replies saying he would talk with the Governors and perhaps call a special meeting. Christine visits Bamfylde for Sports Day along with her cousin Ridgeway who is a bit dismayed about his former Bamfylde teaching fave pairing up with his ‘Bolshie” cousin. Christine finds Bamfylde overly austere. In a group of Old Boys watching David stroll with Christine around campus, Ridgeway refuses to acknowledge knowing her.
SubCh.2 – David and Christine kiss while in the Bamfylde church and discuss David’s struggles with Alcock. Christine comments that if he loses that battle, he could get into politics where she would serve as an aide to his role as a candidate. She tells David she loves him. They discuss her inability to get a divorce and arrange to find a place and time where they can ‘get together’ for a few days.
SubCh.3 - Algy said that something was stirring within the Board with three groups of plotters, Brigadier cooper and the liberals, Blunt and the conservatives, and the majority group which just want to avoid decisions. During break, David goes to Manchester where he and Christine take a train for Windemere to stay at a wooden chalet on a lake. David soon adapts to the pace of the ‘high-spirited’ Christine’s gaiety and lack of inhibition. They make love fairly soon after unpacking, lying in bed afterwards discussing their lovemaking, their precious sexual relations such as his affair with Julia and her fear of having failed in her marital relations with her husband. As the stay goes on, David appreciates Christine more and more and finds himself in love. He tells Christine that she takes precedence over Bamfylde but she replies that she knows he couldn’t be happy in politics and that she prefers him in a job he enjoys. David reflects that the future can wait to happen and he will just enjoy the satisfying present. (hide spoiler)]