Spring came late to Yorbridge that year. Snow lingered in the shadows until April; crocuses pushed up tentatively around the bases of gravestones, as if unsure of their welcome.

The College had a new Principal by Whitsun: a lean, rather humourless man from Cambridge who spoke more of examinations than destiny, and whose wife took one look at the choir school beds and ordered new mattresses.

Dean Kilbey was replaced by a younger man with less polish and more doggedness. Goulburn stayed, thinned down by shame and determination, and quietly saw to it that a lay “Guardian of the Choristers” was appointed—an older matronly woman with a spine of iron, to whom boys might go with complaints without worrying about Latin marks.

Mr Allwood resigned “on grounds of ill health”...

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