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To Serve Them All My Days R F Delderfield 9780671459277 Books

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To Serve Them All My Days R F Delderfield 9780671459277 Books

R.F. Delderfield’s depiction of life between the wars in England is a masterpiece of storytelling. The story is told through the eyes of David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked veteran of Flanders, who is hired to teach at Bamfylde School as part of his recovery from being buried alive by enemy fire. His involuntary tremors are only the physical manifestations of a man suffering deeply from what we moderns know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Headmaster Algy Herries hires David and thus his recovery begins and accelerates as he quickly fits into the seasonal and academic rhythms of this isolated British public school.

“Pow-Wow” or “P.J.” as he is soon christened by his students is a born teacher. He is demanding but fair. His goal is to teach his young charges the “why” of history which he sees as important as chronology. If it takes mnemonics to recall the order of British kings then so be it. As David immerses himself in teaching, his PTSD is lessened and he is able to get on with his life and what a life it is. A personal tragedy in his family threatens to undo all of his recovery while political and philosophical feuds with colleagues and an overbearing headmaster move the tale along at a languid pace that never causes the reader to lose interest. There is a less than happy ending but the ending is as happy as possible given the early days of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. P.J. wonders if all that his generation suffered for in the Great War has been for naught as he contemplates Bamfylde School’s first casualty list of WWII.

Delderfield’s use of language and descriptive passages are superb. This is not an easy read but it a rewarding one for this alone. As one reads, the mental pictures created by his prose make the story both interesting and compelling. While some might fault Delderfield for being overly sentimental, I suggest that this is a misunderstanding of the era and the public school system as it then existed in Britain.

Finally, there is a hint of Good-Bye Mr. Chips in the book due to its setting and time in history. However, David Powlett-Jones is more John Keating than Mr. Chipping. He is a better teacher, more attuned to his charges and more much more passionate about his subject.


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To Serve Them All My Days R F Delderfield 9780671459277 Books Reviews

A young, shell-shocked British veteran of World Wall I is sent by his therapist to interview for a teaching position in a remote boarding school for boys, Bamfylde in Devon. David Powlett-Jones suffered from what we would now call PTS. He jumped or twitched at any sudden noise. His hands trembled. He thought he had been sent for this interview as a joke. "What headmaster in his right mind would hire me," he thought. But he had not counted on the Reverend Algernon Herries. Soon the headmaster, Algy, as he was know to his adoring staff and students, had put David at his ease and hired him as a history professor. The rest of the book is heartwarming tales of David Powlett-Jones, Pow Wow, as he was soon nicknamed, interacting as a professor with the staff and students, and his anguish as he sees the clouds gathering for World War II. To me it was an impressive story.
I'm not sure why I found this book so spell-binding, perhaps because it was exceptionally well-written but that's not the only reason. This story of a shell-shocked World War I veteran who takes a job as a teacher in a boys boarding school is well-developed, compelling, and touching. His relationships with other staff members, the personal losses he endures, the quiet love he develops for his students, his own gradual healing, his heartbreak when some of his charges go on to lose their lives in the second World War -- all of these elements are beautifully interwoven in a book I could not put down and was sorry to see end.
I enjoyed the book more the first 300 pages than the last 250 or so. It gives a good sense of what it was like to serve in WWI on the front lines and then find salvation -- a way back to normalcy and a meaningful life -- by teaching at a private boys school out in the country. We watch the narrator come to fully belong at the school and guide various students kindly and wisely through the years. We see England (our narrator is Welsh) in the years between the wars, and we get a sense of the politics in those years and how the English viewed themselves and the rest of Europe.

I didn't understand significant parts of the book because I know almost nothing about private English boys schools; the grading system and how the school was organized remain mysteries to me. And after a while the vignettes of the boys who pass through the school blurred.
Delderfield is surely one of the greatest writers to come out of Britain.
To Serve Then All My Days is simply a very beautiful book written in simple but brilliant prose and one that you will not forget...ever!
The story of David Powlett-Jones who takes a position at a boy's public school following his discharge from the army.
A broken and damaged young man, who had spent three years in the muddy and bloody trenches of Europe in the First World War, he finds solace and eventually wisdom and love in the embrace of his pupils and fellow school masters.
The story, like life itself, is not clear sailing however. There is tragedy and great sadness within these pages as well as times of triumph and joy,but there is not a sentimental or mawkish sentence in the entire book.
A rather lengthy book as we travel with Powlett-Jones from the First World War through to the Second World War, but there is never a time when you want it to finish. In fact I feel quite lost now that I have to leave behind all those characters I got to know so very well, but I can always revisit this wonderful book and if time allows I most certainly will.
R.F. Delderfield’s depiction of life between the wars in England is a masterpiece of storytelling. The story is told through the eyes of David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked veteran of Flanders, who is hired to teach at Bamfylde School as part of his recovery from being buried alive by enemy fire. His involuntary tremors are only the physical manifestations of a man suffering deeply from what we moderns know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Headmaster Algy Herries hires David and thus his recovery begins and accelerates as he quickly fits into the seasonal and academic rhythms of this isolated British public school.

“Pow-Wow” or “P.J.” as he is soon christened by his students is a born teacher. He is demanding but fair. His goal is to teach his young charges the “why” of history which he sees as important as chronology. If it takes mnemonics to recall the order of British kings then so be it. As David immerses himself in teaching, his PTSD is lessened and he is able to get on with his life and what a life it is. A personal tragedy in his family threatens to undo all of his recovery while political and philosophical feuds with colleagues and an overbearing headmaster move the tale along at a languid pace that never causes the reader to lose interest. There is a less than happy ending but the ending is as happy as possible given the early days of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. P.J. wonders if all that his generation suffered for in the Great War has been for naught as he contemplates Bamfylde School’s first casualty list of WWII.

Delderfield’s use of language and descriptive passages are superb. This is not an easy read but it a rewarding one for this alone. As one reads, the mental pictures created by his prose make the story both interesting and compelling. While some might fault Delderfield for being overly sentimental, I suggest that this is a misunderstanding of the era and the public school system as it then existed in Britain.

Finally, there is a hint of Good-Bye Mr. Chips in the book due to its setting and time in history. However, David Powlett-Jones is more John Keating than Mr. Chipping. He is a better teacher, more attuned to his charges and more much more passionate about his subject.