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  • The Choral by Alan Bennett book cover
  • The Choral by Alan Bennett book cover
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The Choral

by Alan Bennett

A Yorkshire choir amid the First World War

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A Yorkshire choir amid the First World War

Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire, in 1916, Alan Bennett’s screenplay brings wartime pressures into the life of a local choral society. With men volunteering for the front, the society’s plans to perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion are disrupted; its new chorus master, Dr Guthrie, turns to Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and expands the choir to include teenage boys and girls. Singing, desire and friendship unfold alongside the young men’s approaching conscription, giving the musical and social life of the community a clear wartime frame. The published screenplay also includes a preface by Bennett and an introduction by Nicholas Hytner.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Those interested in stories set in Britain during the First World War.
  • Readers curious about choral music and community life.
  • Those who enjoy screenplays and theatre or film-related books.

Themes

Wartime community lifeChoral musicConscriptionDesire and friendship

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

You don't have to believe it. I always took the Matthew Passion with a pinch of salt.

Ramsden, Yorkshire, 1916. The ambitious local Choral Society is depleted as men volunteer for the front and plans for their St Matthew Passion by German composer J. S. Bach are scuppered by patriotic fervour. Dr Guthrie, the mysterious, exacting new Chorus Master, finds a replacement in Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and swells the choir's numbers with teenage boys and girls. Together they discover the urgency of desire and the joy of singing as the new boys come to terms with their imminent conscription, and friendships and summer trysts are suffused with a melancholy sense of all that might soon be lost.

The screenplay will be published alongside the film's UK release (on 7 November 2025), and includes a preface by the author and an introduction from Nicholas Hytner.
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