Review
'Brian Aldiss is one of the most influential - and one of the best - SF writers Britain has ever produced' - Iain Banks
Devotees of Brian Aldiss's work may be somewhat surprised by the subtitle of his latest book which describes it as "An English Romance". Unsuspecting readers hoping to find a gentle story of bucolic delights will be in for a shock ; Hampton Ferrers proves to be more akin to Royston Vasey (of League of Gentlemen fame) than Ambridge. For this is a little English village where bizarre things happen, where the population is as varied and colourful as the cast of a Dickens novel, where you have to suspend disbelief, give up the unequal struggle to make head nor tale of what is really going on (and with whom) and just enjoy the ride. A few miles from Oxford, the village of Hampden Ferrers is about to celebrate its fifteen hundredth anniversary, and a village committee is set up to organise the celebrations. None of the members is remotely Christian, but that appears to be a minor detail. Onto this apparently tranquil scene descend a whole array of visitors - an Italian countess, a couple of beautiful, fantastically wealthy Chinese students and a man who turns into a donkey (naturally). Magic, mystery and lots of extra-marital hanky-panky are in the air; but there is also something exceedingly nasty lurking in the vestry... (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
Hampden Ferrars is an obscure country village, not too distant from Oxford. Its village church, St Clements, is 1,500 years old, and some of the villagers decide that this record of continuity and stability should be celebrated. Many are the difficulties in the way. Foreigners arrive - in particular, two Chinese students and an Italian TV celebrity - and love affairs break out, some suitable, some less suitable. The atmosphere of romance engenders miracles. Slowly, the village becomes involved in magic. Ordinary lives are transformed. Then a threat emanates from within the church itself. The atmosphere darkens as the celebration committee has to decide who is really in command of the world. Brian Aldiss' novel brims with comic and sinister invention. The celebration is not only for St Clements but for Englishness, for the love of the foreign and for love itself.
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