Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris is an English author especially known for her award-winning novel Chocolat. Since Chocolat, all of Harris's books have been UK bestsellers. She has written three more novels in the Chocolat series, continuing the adventures of Vianne Rocher. Gentlemen and Players is a dark psychological thriller, some of the themes may be partly based on Harris' experiences as a teacher at Leeds Grammar School. An old and long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England. A new year has just begun, and for the staff and boys of the School, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, Latin master, eccentric is finally contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the School, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for fifteen years, is about to erupt… The novel is written using Harris' typical split-narrative technique. The first narrator is Straitley himself and focuses on the day-to-day events at St Oswald's as the situation develops. The second is marked by a Black Pawn, and is the voice of the mysterious enemy within St Oswald's, whose identity is only revealed at the end of the book, and who, little by little, reveals the bitterness and hatred that drives a person to fake an identity, break the law and even to commit murder - all in the name of revenge. Enjoy free online English audiobook “Gentlemen and Players”, a novel by Joanne Harris.
