The liveliest battle between America and England since the War of Independence
The best novel of rustic roguery since The Darling Buds of May
"A marvellously descriptive writer ..." Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie
..."a stunningly charming tale, one that becomes part of your heart." Henrietta B. LaLa,
Amazon com reviewer.
When
Sir Humphrey Myles Pinkerton Strange, 8th baronet and huntin’ shootin’
and fishin’ squire of Batch Magna, departs this world for the Upper
House (as he had long, vaguely, thought of it, where God no doubt
presides in ermine over a Heaven as reassuringly familiar as White’s or
Boodle’s), what’s left of his estate passes to distant relative Humph, a
short-order cook from the Bronx.
Sir
Humphrey Franklin T Strange, 9th baronet, and squire of Batch Magna, as
Humph now most remarkably finds himself to be, is persuaded by his
Uncle Frank, a small time Wall Street broker with an eye on the big
time, to make a killing by transforming the sleepy backwater into a
theme-park image of rural England – a vocational paradise for
free-spending US millionaires.
But
while the village pub and shop, with the lure of the dollar in their
eyes, put out the Stars and Stripes in welcome, the tenants of the
estate’s dilapidated houseboats are above any consideration of filthy
lucre and stand their ground for tradition’s sake … and because they
consider eviction notices not to be cricket.
Each disgruntled faction sees the other as the unwelcome Cuckoo in the family nest.
So,
led by randy pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt-Commander James
Cunningham DSO, DSC and Bar, RN (ret) – a man with a glass eye for each
day of the week, painted with scenes from famous British naval victories
and landscapes that speak of England – the motley crew run up the Union
Jack and battle ensigns and prepare to engage.
But this is Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And does …
