Good-Bye, Mr. Chips: by James Hilton.

One cannot help loving this stoic, steady, old fashioned school master who won't budge from routine and discipline though he loves his students and is a very gentle person, and his firmness is without any accompanying meanness or violence or cruelty, an ideal of what a school teacher or parent ought to be - and he is fortunate enough that he meets and loves and is loved entirely by the very counterpart he needs, a woman with intelligence and beauty and lightness of heart who sees his worth in his honesty and his defending her rights as a person, never mind she is a stage dancer (not considered quite respectable those days) - and their happy marriage makes his life and his work far easier for him for ever.

There is life not so personal affecting the times and lives, war for instance, affecting all those living in England shattering peace of their small towns and the school is no exception what with boys at front and planes dropping bombs. Mr. Chipping carries on, just as gently and firmly, with ducking for cover when planes roar above included.

As all other Hilton works do, this one too goes to heart - and stays there.