Tristram Shandy, a distant relative of the Tristram Shandy, is bemired in dreadful Sussexshire. He has fallen into the hands of Captain Midnight - leader of the band of smugglers who infest the lower Cuckmere valley and who have their headquarters in Alfriston. This "Captain" claims to be Blind Pew who made a brief but terrible appearance in Jim Hawkins' Treasure Island. As the man claiming to be Pew struggles against his impending death he narrates his life story to Tristram - who must write it down to earn his keep: and for the benefit of Posterity. It is the story of how a boy became a...

As the final hours of 1922 swill away, and winter storms usher in 1923 Councillor Sticks dies. His former associates, The Men of the Board, plan the plundering of his influence and of his assets. He has a daughter: but what does that signify? Unless she should have a son, born in wedlock, within a year and a day of the Councillor's death they will get everything that they desire. Vicky Sticks is the thirty-fourth most attractive marriageable women in a community that has only nineteen eligible men. The interests of The Men of the Board seem safe enough. As Councillor Straddle remarks...

Following the tragic deaths of her parents Frankie has taken refuge in the Peak District village of Wendby. She buries herself in local history - which proves deeper and darker than she could ever have supposed. She befriends, and decides to seduce, the would-be priest Andrew Grantham, whose family have for centuries shepherded the inhabitants of Wendby into heaven. With him the tradition will die: he has chosen a life of celibacy, and to serve the 'True Church' elsewhere. Anyway, the inhabitants of Wendby definitely have their own ideas for eternal life. Pivotal to the creation of their...