Take a shopworn setting like Portland Court Preparatory School for Boys, an eighteen year old, newly-minted school master named Ben Glossop, a lovely young Under-Matron named Sarah Wilton, mix in a loopy band of kidnappers, a tipsy collection of senior school master’s, a Matron nicknamed “The Elephant” and a 12 year old boy named Taylor who is the real Head Master, and you have the recipe for one of the funniest comic adventures I’ve had the pleasure of reading since P. G. Wodehouse laid down his pen in 1975. From start to finish, it is marvelous fun.
Charles Utley, a London barrister, is a wonderful story teller, and Taylor Takes Charge is a wonderful book that you will read over and over again. Watch for the sequel, which I am told, will appear ‘soon’. Is Charles Utley starting a series of Portland Court novels? Oh, I hope he is.
A definite 5-star read