A month in the country

J.L. Carr

The plot concerns Tom Birkin, a World War I veteran employed to uncover a mural in a village church that was thought to exist under coats of whitewash. At the same time another veteran is employed to look for a grave beyond the churchyard walls. The novel explores themes of England's loss of spirituality after the war, and of happiness, melancholy, and nostalgia as Birkin recalls the summer uncovering the mural, when he healed from his wartime experiences and a broken marriage. Many of the incidents in the novel are based on real events in Carr's own life, and some of the characters are modelled on his own Methodist family. With a screenplay by Simon Gray, the novel was made into a 1987 film by the same title.