Book Ten

Senior Year

2030 to 2031

A photograph of a village cricket match on a summer evening, seen from far across the field: players in white, a small white pavilion and a scoreboard, an old stone church with a square tower beside the ground, wooded hills beyond under a pink and gold sky, and a small rough-coated terrier running across the outfield. Crown on the Potomac Senior Year Book Ten 2030 to 2031

August 2030. Mr Abernathy's homeroom, all thirty-one of them, flies to England for a year at Coln Abbey School, in a valley in the Cotswolds, where the English call the King Fred, the bus into Cirencester is never on time, and a woman of ninety-nine on the churchyard wall has opinions about every King since the one who asked her the way to Bibury.

Senior Year follows him through a State Opening with a heavier crown, a Christmas in the snow, a donkey's head in a tithe barn, a cheese down a hill and a cricket match on the green, to a leaving day, a flight home, a graduation, and a Monday on which nothing happens.

Each chapter opens with a short extract from the Universal Register, the encyclopedia of the world the book is set in. The extracts are quoted from the Register as it stands; the chapters show what happened in the rooms it was not in.

Begin reading: Chapter One, Speedbird → Characters

Part One: Michaelmas (29 August to 20 December 2030)

  1. 1 Speedbird Frederick. 25 min.
  2. 2 The Wold Frederick. 15 min.
  3. 3 Windrush Frederick. 16 min.
  4. 4 The Footpath Frederick. 20 min.
  5. 5 Prep Frederick. 17 min.
  6. 6 Paddington Frederick. 18 min.
  7. 7 Where Is the King? Frederick. 13 min.
  8. 8 The New Inn Frederick. 18 min.
  9. 9 Stirling Frederick. 15 min.
  10. 10 Bonfire Night Frederick. 17 min.
  11. 11 Westminster Frederick. 16 min.
  12. 12 Remembrance Frederick. 15 min.

Part Two: Advent and Lent (December 2030 to March 2031)

  1. 13 Auditions Frederick. 16 min.
  2. 14 Christmas on the Wold Frederick. 29 min.
  3. 15 Boxing Day Frederick. 16 min.
  4. 16 Snow Day Frederick. 20 min.
  5. 17 Stockholm Frederick. 17 min.
  6. 18 Half-Term Frederick. 15 min.
  7. 19 Lambing Frederick. 21 min.
  8. 20 The London House Frederick. 16 min.
  9. 21 Rehearsal Frederick. 17 min.
  10. 22 Moreton-in-Marsh Frederick. 15 min.
  11. 23 Pyramus and Thisbe Frederick. 18 min.
  12. 24 Inés Frederick. 15 min.

Part Three: Trinity (April to May 2031)

  1. 25 Maundy Frederick. 23 min.
  2. 26 Winchester Frederick. 17 min.
  3. 27 Eighteen Frederick. 29 min.
  4. 28 The Fête Frederick. 24 min.
  5. 29 Confidence Frederick. 21 min.
  6. 30 Kimura Frederick. 21 min.
  7. 31 The Green Frederick. 27 min.
  8. 32 Jack Frederick. 18 min.

Part Four: Home (June 2031)

  1. 33 Leaving Day Frederick. 29 min.
  2. 34 Sceptre West Frederick. 22 min.
  3. 35 Graduation Frederick. 24 min.
  4. 36 Monday Frederick. 34 min.