Alice Chadwick’s debut novel takes place during a single day, which begins with the death of geography teacher Mr Ardennes, a calming presence in his unnamed, middle-England grammar school. We meet him briefly at the novel’s start – still alive – night-walking as if he could “never be easy”.
After the announcement of the news in assembly, the day marches on unimpeded, with brutal precision. Chadwick’s book is not only underpinned by an incisive faithfulness to details – canteen cutlery like “fish poured from a net”, 1980s “ceiling swirls like crests of royal icing” – but an unwavering adherence to her own time-stamped chapter form. Leaping between the perspectives of students and teachers, it transpires that the children’s chief concerns include the forthcoming timetable changes, or the injustice of the deceased teacher no longer marking their projects.
