Gary Mitchell – ‘Green And Pleasant Land… – Book III – Stories’ (2004) DIGITAL DOWNLOAD NOVEL

Description

Novel by Gary Mitchell. ‘Green And Pleasant Land’ is a series of short stand-alone novels, less than 300 pages each, about the people of a mythical English village Offord St. Mary, set in the Huntingdonshire fens.

‘Book III – Stories’ differs from the other volumes in being a collection of stand-alone tales.

In the spirit of the old Ealing comedies ‘Vitaphilia’ is a mildly risqué ghost story involving a laughing cavalier, a fruity string quartet, and dying true love.

Co-written with comedy-pal Anne Lydon (‘One In Three’ is a comic sketch of Offord St. Mary life, portraying quirky, yet typically English, characters, together with the society in which they live. The tale snapshots feuds and loves through the medium of a Village Hall meeting of ‘One In Three’ single parents support group: plot a subordinate consideration to descriptive writing the tale is a blend of pathos and wry observation.

‘Age Concern’ is a short story with an inverse punchline. Henry and Charlotte’s romance is forbidden by his domineering guardians, so they are obliged to meet in secret whenever she can ‘escape’ from the institutional home where she lives…

‘Rasputin’ is the dark tale of a clergyman’s sexual misconduct – the kind in which the Sunday tabloid press so delights. When new vicar Matthew Lamont arrives to take up his post in Offord he clashes with disappointed curate Emily Longford. The story concludes – as it began – with the poignant line, ‘Verily Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’.

Cover illustration by Frank Cutbush.