Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Goodbye, Mr. Chips, published in 1934, is James Hilton's most beloved novella. Mr. Chipping — Chips to generations of Dorvington boys — arrives at a minor English public school as a young man and never leaves. Over six decades he evolves from an awkward disciplinarian into the school's living memory, sustained by quiet humour and an unexpected late marriage that briefly opens his world. Written in a single sitting, the story's gentle nostalgia masks a precise understanding of how institutions shape and are shaped by the people who give their lives to them.