The captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves and losses of a young Sidney Chambers in post-war London
It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert’s birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war.
Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross, and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world – and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent. To the incredulity of his family and the derision of his friends – the irrepressible actor Freddie, and the beautiful,
spiky Amanda – Sidney must now negotiate his path to God: the course of which, much like true love, never runs smooth.
The touching, engaging and surprising origin story of the Grantchester Mysteries’s beloved Archdeacon, Sidney Chambers, The Road to Grantchester will delight new and old fans alike.
- The origin story and first full length novel in the much treasured ‘Grantchester Mysteries’ series, which has now sold over 130,000 copies (TCM) and over 550,000 copies worldwide
- Will publish to coincide with the final series of ITV’s major, primetime Grantchester, starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers, which has attracted viewers of over six million over its first and second seasons
- For fans of the Grantchester Mysteries and the novels of William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks
Reviews
“A tremendous novel — shrewd, compelling and full of insight — James Runcie elevates the genre to impressive new heights” – William Boyd
“Written with such tenderness, and very moving – I loved it” – Elizabeth Buchan
Author Biography
James Runcie is an award-winning film-maker and the author of ten novels that have been translated into twelve languages Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death, the first in ‘The Grantchester Mysteries’ series, was published in 2012, soon followed by Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night, Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil, Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins, Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation and Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love. In October 2014, ITV launched Grantchester, a prime-time series starring James Norton as Sidney
Chambers, with the second season airing in March 2016, and a third in May 2017.
Future series are planned. James Runcie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commissioning Editor for Arts at BBC Radio 4. He lives in London and Edinburgh.