The Cuckoos of Batch Magna by Peter Maughan

Every sense was satisfied with the author’s beautiful descriptions of the Marches. If you love writing that absorbs you into the landscape you will love this book. “A wonderful, funny, well-crafted escape from everyday life. … Is there another Batch Magna book on the way, please? Such a wonderfully descriptive bucolic and warmly ‘human’ story with echoes of the Darling Buds of May.” “What an amazing writer! I have never found any descriptive writing that has gripped me so much before.” It’s lyrical and very amusing, with all the charm of an old Ealing comedy.

“Hurrah for Batch Magna, Humphrey and friends.” … Batch Magna is a place I would love to find, and the river sounds idyllic.” “These books are such fun, darkly comic and full of great characters.

It’s a treasure, a smashing read, funny and beautifully written.” “I first got this book out of the local library, and then brought a copy – I wanted to read it again and again.

… I eagerly await the next instalment of the Batch Magna crew!” I loved reading the Welsh village descriptions it felt like coming home. “Reading this book was like sitting down for a nice long chat with an old friend. An England that doesn’t exist but surely should.” “An enchanting mixture of The Wind in The Willows and The Darling Buds of May. What readers are saying about The Batch Magna Chronicles series: Strange, 9th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, as Humph now most remarkably finds himself to be, is persuaded by his Uncle Frank, a small-time Wall Street broker, to make a killing by turning the sleepy backwater into a theme-park image of rural England, a playground for the world's rich.īut while the village pub and shop put out the Stars and Stripes in welcome, the tenants of the estate’s dilapidated houseboats tear up their notices to quit, and led by pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and the one-eyed Lt-Commander James Cunningham, they run up the Union Jack and prepare to engage. When Sir Humphrey Strange, 8th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, departs this world for the Upper House, what’s left of his estate passes, through the ancient law of entailment, to distant relative Humph, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx. Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. Will the long-time residents of Batch Magna manage to put a stop to his plans? Humph is persuaded to make a killing by turning the sleepy backwater into a theme-park image of rural England. When Sir Humphrey Strange, squire of Batch Magna, departs this world, his estate passes to distant relative Humph, a short-order cook from the Bronx.

The Cuckoos of Batch Magna by Peter Maughan