The Road to Grantchester

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What to expect

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'If you love the TV series Grantchester, don’t miss this captivating prequel. It reveals the backstory of how a young Sidney Chambers, carefree in London just before the Second World War, came to be the charming crime-fighting clergyman we know today' - Yours

'Charming, clever and warm: perfect comfort food for the soul' - Joanne Harris, Daily Telegraph

'An engaging and witty prequel' - Washington Post

'Hugely enjoyable … Some of the finest writing I have ever read about the sorrow and the pity of war' - Herald
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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.

Critics Review

  • Written with a delicate intelligence … Sidney Chambers is as convincing as any flesh-and-blood creature, not just an idea of a parson. This is because Runcie has thoroughly imagined him and in this coming-of-age novel he shows us how and why he became what he is

    Scotsman

  • Charming, clever and warm: perfect comfort food for the soul

    Daily Telegraph

  • Hugely enjoyable … Some of the finest writing I have ever read about the sorrow and the pity of war

    Herald

  • 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

  • Runcie excels at evoking the look and feel of warfare … Casts the show’s first three series in a disturbing but satisfying new light. One can hardly ask for more

    independent.co.uk

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