Joanne Harris

It’s an incendiary moment for St Oswald’s school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power: the gates are opening to girls. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts, and with it, the remains of a body are discovered. Rebecca will bury the past so deep even her own memory will be just out of reach.

This is the last of a trio of novels set in St Oswald’s Grammar School featuring Roy Straitley, the elderly and quixotic Latin Master, and his personal battle against Suits, e-mail, parents and the passage of time.

Joanne Harris’ choice of subject ranges from the best-selling Chocolat trilogy to her Norse mythology-based fantasy series, and we are guaranteed an evening of intrigue and imagination from one of Topping & Company’s favourite authors around.