Village Matters

By Rebecca Shaw

Again I found myself in the small English rural village of Turnham Malpas. Yet again I was able to meet with all the people there including the rector (who had twins with another woman and whose wife is still with him and they have adopted the two children) and the lovely Muriel. I think she is my favourite.

Again there are things happening in Turnham Malpas. All of which I think are blown out of proportion but that is also the wonderful thing about these books. They are purely for entertainment and nothing else.

The village store owner's daughter, Flick, is run over by a car which happens to be driven by Alan, who works in the pub. Everyone in the village turn against him but that is only until he saves Sir Ralph's (Muriel's husband) life after he has a heart attack. There is also tension in the marriage between Sir Ralph and Muriel when he wants to build new houses on a piece of land he did not know that he owned. Muriel is not happy about this, and so are some of the villagers, but here the tension also blows over - results in a new found friendship between Sir Ralph and his cousin.