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Joanna Trollope
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The Choir Mass Market Paperback – April 1, 1997

by Joanna Trollope (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,814 ratings
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When costly much-needed repairs to the cathedral in Aldminster threaten to abolish the boys' choir, housewife Sally Ashworth becomes involved in the cause, which is also affected by her talented young son. Reprint.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Berkley
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    4.32 x 0.87 x 7.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0425157180
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0425157183
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (April 1, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0425157180
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0425157183
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.32 x 0.87 x 7.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,814 ratings

About the author

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Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope

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Joanna Trollope has been writing fiction for more than 30 years. Some of her best known works include The Rector's Wife (her first #1 bestseller), A Village Affair, Other People's Children, and Marrying the Mistress. She was awarded the OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honors List for services to literature. She lives in England.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
1,814 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the characters well-developed and interesting. They describe the book as an enjoyable read with a clear, easy-to-read writing style. However, opinions differ on the story quality - some find it good and satisfying, while others feel it lacks interest and is not the best literature ever.

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Character developmentEnjoymentWriting styleStory quality
6 customers mention "Character development"6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the well-developed characters and find them interesting. They can visualize the characters and setting. The author's portrayal of restraint and manners is appreciated.

"...I thought the characters were well-drawn and realistic and it had a satisfying ending...." Read more

"This is a wonderful story. The characters are well developed and very interesting. the cathedral and the music are sublime...." Read more

"...An unabashed Anglophile, I love her portrayal of restraint and manners in the most trying of situations." Read more

"...this book many years ago , i still enjoyed the tale and could visualise the characters and the setting ." Read more

6 customers mention "Enjoyment"6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book. They find it an entertaining read with fun characters. Many readers are Anglophiles and appreciate the choral music aspect of the story. Overall, it's a light-hearted listening experience.

"...Overall a light-weight and enjoyable listening experience...." Read more

"...I have read several of her novels, all very enjoyable for an Anglophile like me." Read more

"A delightful read for anyone who has had the slightest exposure to an English choir school...." Read more

"Fun for choral music lovers, this story deals with the problems of finding a long tradition bumping up against the personal complexities faced by..." Read more

3 customers mention "Writing style"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing style clear and easy to read.

"...Highly recommend this well written, finely told story." Read more

"...As usual, the writing style is clear, easy, spare--much like the style of America's own Anne Tyler--with no straining after flourishes; and both..." Read more

"...awhile to get into this one, unusual as I find Joanna Trollope very easy to read...." Read more

9 customers mention "Story quality"6 positive3 negative

Customers have differing views on the story quality. Some find it engaging with well-developed characters and a satisfying ending. Others feel it lacks interest and is predictable.

"...Highly recommend this well written, finely told story." Read more

"The book was not as interesting as I had expected. I have the CD of the movie's music and loved it...." Read more

"...the characters were well-drawn and realistic and it had a satisfying ending...." Read more

"This is a wonderful story. The characters are well developed and very interesting. the cathedral and the music are sublime...." Read more

Good read and a step back in time
5 out of 5 stars
Good read and a step back in time
I found this book at a "Little Library" How lucky for me! I enjoyed reading something that is quite literally from a different time (the 90s), place (England) and lifestyle (Religious School with Choir). There was intrigue, scandals, and yet, the type of innocence that we lost so long ago. No lecturing, no PC diatribes, just a tale with tea and song. I felt like I was back on my first post-college trip to England. I do have to agree with some of the other readers that it was confusing. I'm not really sure why, but I had to make a cheat sheet LOL
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Top reviews from the United States

Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin
5.0 out of 5 stars I heard the perfect soprano voices of the boy's choir in the background
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2017
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A movie was made from this outstanding read. Unfortunately, the movie's availability seems to have totally disappeared, but the novel lives on. It is a typical Joanna Trollope accomplishment. A setting that anglophiles can't resist...the Cathedral Close, a cast of characters in high church positions that must work together as well as see to the spiritual needs of those around them. Throughout the read, I heard the perfect soprano voices of the boy's choir in the background. The long tradition of sacred music, that helps shape young lives, is threatened when the maintenance of the Cathedral and the expense of the choir become an either-or situation. Highly recommend this well written, finely told story.
8 people found this helpful
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ivbell
4.0 out of 5 stars A good story, pleasant, with interesting characters, though nothing earth-shattering.
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2017
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Enjoyed listening to this story of a boys choir and the machinations of the local dean. I have no idea how realistic it is, but I appreciated the look inside local politics and the local church. I thought the characters were well-drawn and realistic and it had a satisfying ending. It might be a bit of a soap opera but it isn't far-fetched (as some are). Overall a light-weight and enjoyable listening experience. I looked forward to my drives to and from work and my evening walk listening to the slice of life story.
2 people found this helpful
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melanie vidrine
3.0 out of 5 stars Barbara Pym Revisited
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2017
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Many years ago, I discovered Barbara Pym's novels of British life, often centered around the Anglican Church. Joanna Trollope is a more modern author in the same vein. I have read several of her novels, all very enjoyable for an Anglophile like me.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The choir
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2014
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This is a wonderful story. The characters are well developed and very interesting. the cathedral and the music are sublime. Listen to the CD the choir original soundtrack recording masterpiece theatre 1995 bbc.Harrington
One person found this helpful
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Ol' Sorrow
4.0 out of 5 stars England's pleasant land?
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2009
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The Choir displays the virtues of JT's novels and, to my mind, may be placed just below her masterwork, Other People's Children (no shame in that). There is a cast of the usual suspects who range from the wise bespeaker of old English virtues, to the snarling emblem of our modern, self-centered, pampered society, the character who works mischief all around by doing what she/he feels like doing. The plot offers more than a small dose of unrealistic wish fulfillment and large doses of the author's usual theme--namely, that a woman become strong by beating up on a man, usually a man of straw. But here nobody eats her/his cake and keeps it too. As usual, the writing style is clear, easy, spare--much like the style of America's own Anne Tyler--with no straining after flourishes; and both writers detail the tribulations of modern, middle-class household life, especially the depredations wrought on a vibrant soul overwhelmed by diapers, whinny brats, a selfish (or overly solicitous) husband, and the demands of passion. A highly recommended book.
8 people found this helpful
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Linda Benedict
5.0 out of 5 stars British Cathedral Choir School
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2017
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A delightful read for anyone who has had the slightest exposure to an English choir school. Enlightening also for its sprinkling of idioms unfamiliar in US English. The struggles and anguish of the characters are universal, though colored by the lenses of their professional passions and their unique culture.
4 people found this helpful
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DMBD
4.0 out of 5 stars and has fun loving, hating and ultimately rooting for characters' triumph ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
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Joanna Trollope recreates the world of an English cathedral school in The Choir just as she has recreated village life in so many of her other novels, with an unerring ability to place the reader dead center in the unique setting. While exploring this world from various characters' perspectives, the reader becomes involved in the preservation of a quintessential slice of British life, and has fun loving, hating and ultimately rooting for characters' triumph or redemption. An unabashed Anglophile, I love her portrayal of restraint and manners in the most trying of situations.
10 people found this helpful
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fraulein
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2013
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The book was not as interesting as I had expected. I have the CD of the movie's music and loved it. Guess I thought the story would be as good as the music. Have looked for a DVD but can't find it.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

SusannahB
5.0 out of 5 stars Joanna Trollop's First* and Best Novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2018
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Joanna Trollope's first* novel 'The Choir' focuses on a group of people whose lives centre around Aldminster Cathedral; there is Alexander Troy, headmaster of King's School, whose wife, Felicity, suffering from the pressures of being a clergyman's wife, has temporarily disappeared; there is the Dean, Hugh Cavendish, a quietly autocratic man, who despite doing his best to control matters in the Cathedral Close, has a bossy, opinionated wife and has failed to maintain any effective control over his four unusual and independently-minded children - three of whom are now adults living fairly dysfunctional lives and the youngest of whom is causing havoc at the local comprehensive (after having been removed from the King's School for disruptiveness); then there is Leo Beckford, the school organist and choirmaster, who begins a love affair with Sally Ashworth, the unhappily-married mother of Henry, one of Leo's most talented choristers (and a particularly endearing young character); and there is Sally's father-in-law, Frank Ashworth, a down-to-earth, socialist councillor - who, despite feeling proud of his grandson's achievements, feels strongly about the "elitist" atmosphere of the Cathedral Close and has some rather unsettling ideas about how to address this elitism. And when the Dean discovers that the roof of his beloved Cathedral needs hugely expensive repairs, he considers it necessary to sacrifice the choir in order to pay for it - a situation which, along with Frank Ashworth's proposition for making the Close more accessible to the general public, causes a whole series of events which have significant consequences for everyone involved…

This is an enjoyable and believable story (and most probably Joanna Trollope's best book) with a whole host of interesting and (mostly) sympathetic characters and a plot that remains involving throughout the length of the novel. And it is not just the main protagonists who are well portrayed - those on the periphery, such as Bishop Robert, a truly Christian individual (whose brand of Christianity is much more people-orientated than the Dean's self-interested brand), was very well-depicted, and I would have liked to have read more about him and his wife. I would also have liked to have learnt more about the Dean's two older children: Fergus, an atheist and assistant editor of a satirical magazine, and Petra, a sculptor, who "sculpted vast metal beasts in a warehouse shared by a Welsh painter older than the Dean, whose wife broke into the warehouse regularly and wrecked anything of Petra's she had the strength and time to destroy." In addition to reading about the personal lives and relationships of the main characters, I particularly enjoyed reading about the more ecclesiastical aspects of the lives of those living within the Cathedral Close, such as the interesting information about church and choral music, the internal politicking and the pressures of being a clergyman's wife - a subject Joanna Trollop returned to and very much focused on in a later novel 'The Rector's Wife'. Although I have had mixed feelings about some of Ms Trollop's more recent books, I particularly enjoyed rereading'The Choir' (as I did 'The Rector's Wife' and 'A Spanish Lover') and would certainly recommend this novel to anyone looking for an intelligent and enjoyable downtime read.

* First novel published under the author's own name.

5 Stars.
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Rose
4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Trollope
Reviewed in Germany on May 14, 2013
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As a Trollope fan I was not disappointed with this one and the little feuds between characters are well drawn and believable.
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Colin
5.0 out of 5 stars One of Trollope's best. Her feel for the politics and social tensions ...
Reviewed in Australia on October 30, 2014
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One of Trollope's best. Her feel for the politics and social tensions in the community around the cathedral is so well written.
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anneridies
4.0 out of 5 stars The Choir
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2024
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I seriously wavered about giving this book two or three stars and for the first half I would have done!
But I ploughed on becoming quite cross that I was wasting my life reading it book that was so utterly confusing!!
Maybe it’s my age but I kept forgetting who was who and having to read parts again to understand it.
But once you get to just over 50% of the way through it suddenly gathers pace ,you know who is who from the bishop to the dean etc and it becomes thoroughly enjoyable.
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Marg Easton
4.0 out of 5 stars Immensely enjoyable
Reviewed in Australia on April 4, 2015
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This is one of Joanna Trollopes best. The characters are gently developed and the reader is drawn in to their lives as the school and its' community deal with the issues to save the choir. An immensely enjoyable novel to read.
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