British Library Publishing Family Matters

'The characters are quite extraordinarily living...A most original and grimly farcical situation' - Dorothy L.SayersRobert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man.In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artefacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs.Robert's wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public.Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering.Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams in their peaceful hometown Shufflecester.Everything is wrong - and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha's eye, they take a turn for the worse.Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams' lives.This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.