The Choir: A Novel

By Joanna Trollope

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307757883

Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope is the author of many highly acclaimed and bestselling novels, including The Rector's Wife, Marrying the Mistress, Daughters in Law and City of Friends. She was appointed OBE in 1996, and a trustee of the National Literacy Trust in in 2012. She has chaired the Whitbread and Orange Awards, as well as being a judge of many other literature prizes; she has been part of two DCMS panels on public libraries and is patron of numerous charities, including Meningitis Now, and Chawton House Library. In 2014, she updated Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility as the opening novel in the Austen Project.

Reviews for The Choir

[flydodofly · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I used to like J. Trollope's books and was glad to have found this one, but it bored me just enough to stop reading after some 50 odd pages.Here are two quotes I liked, they are of that dry, entertaining author's voice I like: P. 23: ...but, that was one of the penalties of growing older, that you stopped accepting things and started judging them.P. 25: Being grateful is exhausting work.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The boys’ choir in a cathedral town is in danger of being abandoned because of a lack of funds as well as the immediate necessity of the cathedral needing a ne roof. The Deacon is determined to use the money the choir costs toward the cathedral’s physical repairs. However, a significant number of the townspeople want the choir to stay – notably the Deacon’s daughter who fancies herself in love with the choirmaster. She organizes a fun raising scheme to save the choir that is quite successful. The choirmaster, however, is in love with the married mother of his lead chorister, so trouble is ahead.A lot of this book seems very old fashioned when one considers how unreligious Britain is today, and the reader really needs to suspend a sense of reality in order to keep some of the handwringing and soul searching from turning into the ridiculous.

[lyzzybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

(30 December 1993)Her first novel, and perhaps she chose to consciously ape her distant relative, Anthony, in setting this in a Cathedral Close. We meet a variety of characters, all connected to the Cathedral and its boys’ choir in one way or another, from the school headmaster to the old school left-wing city councillor who happens to have a grandson in the group. As money tightens and passions run high, splits appear in all sorts of likely and unlikely places. Will anyone be able to save the day? Will broken relationships be repaired? Does anyone actually want them to be?What’s interesting about this book, looking back from a perspective of having read almost all of her contemporary novels, is that this doesn’t really feel like a first novel. It just feels like a Joanna Trollope novel. All of her stylistic quirks are there: people start padding around almost immediately, and “They all,” she thought as she wrote her review, “split their utterances in a weird way” (I once wrote a whole review in her style – deary me!). She has women who are not good wives, women who have Agas, children, hapless men … all as in all of her books. It’s quite an achievement to have such a homogenous whole and very comforting to her fans.I picked this one up for re-reading precisely because I wanted to check whether I should keep these. And I still don’t know. It’s not like the “quest” books, where a re-read of a Dave Gorman has reminded me how fun those are – I really am torn. I’ve had these and my Mary Wesleys (in a similar edition) for 20 years. But with pressure on the bookshelves and these not exactly invisible on the charity shop and library bookshelves, do I NEED to keep them? I don’t even have the later ones, even though I’ve read them: I didn’t need to keep those! The jury is still out!

[catien_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set in Aldminster, a small town in England, this is a story about a cathedral and the boys' choir that sings in that cathedral. The dean is a power-hungry micro-manager who has no power at home and so needs to have it in his job. The cathedral is the most important thing in his life, so when it is discovered that the roof is leaking and there has been extensive and expensive damage to the structure, he proposes that they get rid of the choir and use the money for the cathedral. The war begins between those who want the choir and those who believe it is elitist, and no one comes out of it unscathed. I know, the plot doesn't sound very exciting, but because the characters are so well-written, even the minor ones, you can't wait to find out who is going to do what next, and there is some family drama thrown in for good measure. Just a lovely book.

[figgles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meaty story balancing the politics of an English Cathedral Close with the human stories of the people involved and arching over all a love of music. Transcends the aga saga genre to be a really good novel. One of her best.

[johnthefireman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I bought this after seeing the TV series and enjoying the music. It's a nice enough story set in an Anglican cathedral in the UK.

[john5918 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I bought this after seeing the TV series and enjoying the music. It's a nice enough story set in an Anglican cathedral in the UK.