Review: Beautifully evocative, gently humorous, and enjoyably fun
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2014
Set in the half-English half-Welsh village of Batch Magna, and following on delightfully from The Cuckoos of Batch Magna, Sir Humphrey at Batch Hall is a thoroughly enjoyable novel of farce, fun and wonder. Lyrically told with a wonderful literary feel, it’s filled with great characters, glorious scenery, and joyful happenstance; enjoying the same “foolishly happy, disreputable air, suggestive of a down-at-heel aristocrat” as its characters and places; and truly warming the heart while entertaining the mind.Personally I’d recommend readers start with the first novel in this series, just because you shouldn’t miss anything. But Sir Humphrey at Batch Hall stands just as well on its own. With odd, sometimes hilarious diversions, it has its own enjoyable story arc, and characters are reintroduced with just enough detail to make them wholly real again, from feckless author Phineas, to Owain, whose “stories were in the sounds, signs and tracks of the woods and fields,” to mothers of many, to mothers of none, aristocrats, scam-artists, hapless Americans, and all in between.Both novels (and the short story offered at the end of this book) have the feel of tales tended by nature, grown organically, and delightfully unforced. The language is beautiful, literate and fun. The location is vivid and green. And the buying of history, saving of nature, and playing of cricket, plus a touch of mystery, are all equally enthralling in the rough and tumble of tumble-down Welsh Marches, innocent error, and splendid fun.Disclosure: I count myself ridiculously lucky to have been given a free ecopy of such a good book.