Lord Dismiss Us

By: Michael Campbell

Narrated by: Jean-Michel George

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Mr. Crabtree has just arrived to take over as headmaster at Weatherhill, an English public school whose reputation is on the decline, and with the help of his meddlesome wife and odious daughter, he is determined to turn things around. But Crabtree is totally devoid of either sympathy or understanding and his misguided efforts lead to hilarious disasters, such as when he invites a girls' school for tea to try to woo the boys from their 'unnatural ways'. 

Meanwhile, Mrs Crabtree is infatuated with the chaplain, whose sermons about 'the burning fire' are a source of constant merriment to the boys, and Dr. Kingsly is arranging the annual school play, not thinking of how the homophobic Crabtree will react to seeing the boys dressed as girls. 

Yet mixed with the comedy are two private tragedies: Eric Ashley, a brilliant young teacher, is struggling to come to grips with his homosexuality, and Carleton, a senior boy, finds himself strangely drawn to Allen, a fellow member of the cricket team. It all moves inexorably towards a tremendously funny and heartbreakingly sad final day of the school year, when the titular hymn will be sung and more than one character will leave Weatherhill forever.... 

Widely praised on its initial publication, Lord Dismiss Us (1967) is reprinted here for the first time in three decades.

©1967, 2018 The Estate of Michael Campbell (P)2018 Valancourt Books, LLC

Good read - dreadful narrator

This is a good read and almost a classic of its type but absolutely and completely ruined by a truly dreadful narrator. Why on earth didn't they get Stephen Fry. I found it impossible to listen to.

Narrator is a disaster

The narrator cannot distinguish between the boys and the teachers. His portrayal of Ashley is all wrong, he acts more like one of the boys.
so difficult to distinguish which character is talking and makes it so difficult to follow.
His accents are appalling too and inconsistent.

The story is good , although not particularly well written. As a result it would be better to have just narrated it in one neutral voice without trying to get into character.

Better to read the book, I'm afraid.

Good story, narrator is poor

The story is good, the writing can be confusing, as it changes perspective often, therefore making connection to the characters harder. If it was all from the perspective of Carlton, there would have been more of a connection, but it kept changing perspective, leaving nothing to the imagination of the reader. We don't go along with the story with Carlton, as we know more than he does about his situation. The narrator does alright in some points, but at the end, we tries to do a "Canadian" accent, which comes out as southern american, and that's a generous assessment! Overall, the story is good, and is a interesting perspective of being gay at a time where it was still so controversial, but not the best book I've ever read.