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Batch Magna #1
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna
When Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, huntin' shootin' and fishin' Squire of Batch Magna, goes to his reward (doubtless to find God as true-blue British as his more recent but equally worthy ancestors), his rambling but rotting estate passes to distant relative Humph, a hapless dollar doodler in New York.With $$ in his eyes, Humph decides to make a killing by transforming the sleepy backwater of Batch Magna into a theme park image of rural England - a vacation paradise for free-spending US millionaires.But while the village's threadbare businessmen see the plan as a windfall, the tenants of the estate's dilapidated houseboats are above any consideration of filthy lucre and stand their ground for tradition's sake . and because they consider eviction notices not to be cricket.Each disgruntled faction sees the other as the unwelcome cuckoo chick in the family nest!So, lead by randy pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt-Commander James Cunningham DSO, DSC and Bar, RN (ret) - a man with a glass eye to suit every occasion (and all painted with naval battle scenes where the Union Jack flies triumphant) - the motley crew takes on Wall Street . broadside to broadside.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 2004
125 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Peter Maughan
11 books26 followersPeter Maughan is an ex-actor, fringe theatre director and script writer. He is married and lives in the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales, and the backdrop to the Batch Magna series of novels, set in a village cut off from whatever the rest of the world gets up to beyond the hills of its valley.
All the books in the series feature houseboats, converted paddle steamers on Batch Magna’s river the Cluny, and the author lived on a houseboat in the mid-1970s (the time frame for the novels) on a converted Thames sailing barge among a small colony of houseboats on the Medway, deep in rural Kent.
An idyllic time, heedless days of freedom in that other world of the river which inspired the novels, set in a place called Batch Magna.
All the books in the series feature houseboats, converted paddle steamers on Batch Magna’s river the Cluny, and the author lived on a houseboat in the mid-1970s (the time frame for the novels) on a converted Thames sailing barge among a small colony of houseboats on the Medway, deep in rural Kent.
An idyllic time, heedless days of freedom in that other world of the river which inspired the novels, set in a place called Batch Magna.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
January 1, 2015
Meet Sir Humphrey and the endearing folk of Batch Magna. The delightful prose is ineffable. The story carries you gently with the flow of the river, describing the lovely riverside community and the charming characters the author developed. The droll humor combined with the stunning descriptions, will entertain you. Here are three I adored: the green woodpecker laughed again, something made a small splash and the sound of birdsong. Not to miss: her considerable bosom lifted in outrage.
If you only read one book in 2015 with a character named Phineas, it must be this one.
If you only read one book in 2015 with a character named Phineas, it must be this one.
May 8, 2015
I’m not one for rereading books, apart from perhaps the classics. Quite simply, I have so many books to read…my TBR will happily sort me out for the next ten years, I think…so it’s purely a time thing.
However…never say never. This is one book I would have no hesitation in putting back in the pile to read again. And again.
How can one describe the village of Batch Magna? Difficult to find that’s for sure; dreamy, quiet, peaceful…where time has almost stood still. BUT, it’s all about to change when the ‘squire’ of the Batch Magna estate dies and it passes to his beneficiary, Humph. Humph has no plans whatsoever for the estate as it stands: no, much more profitable would be a theme park. This divides the village’s residents: those with businesses foresee an upturn in their profits that a constant flow of visitors would provide. The tenants who live on the estate’s houseboats are devastated. They face eviction. And the loss of their lazy, hazy existence.
It’s not so much the actual story that’s captivating here. It’s the writing. Maughan makes me want to go and live in this almost unfindable, dozy, little place AND with the delightfully quirky motley crew of characters. He’s created a magic kingdom to which you would want to escape. I swear I could hear birds singing, branches rustling and water lapping as I read. That’s how enchanting it is. (So much so, I can just about overlook the...um...'loose’ editing. Sorry, Peter).
Read this. It’s delightful.
However…never say never. This is one book I would have no hesitation in putting back in the pile to read again. And again.
How can one describe the village of Batch Magna? Difficult to find that’s for sure; dreamy, quiet, peaceful…where time has almost stood still. BUT, it’s all about to change when the ‘squire’ of the Batch Magna estate dies and it passes to his beneficiary, Humph. Humph has no plans whatsoever for the estate as it stands: no, much more profitable would be a theme park. This divides the village’s residents: those with businesses foresee an upturn in their profits that a constant flow of visitors would provide. The tenants who live on the estate’s houseboats are devastated. They face eviction. And the loss of their lazy, hazy existence.
It’s not so much the actual story that’s captivating here. It’s the writing. Maughan makes me want to go and live in this almost unfindable, dozy, little place AND with the delightfully quirky motley crew of characters. He’s created a magic kingdom to which you would want to escape. I swear I could hear birds singing, branches rustling and water lapping as I read. That’s how enchanting it is. (So much so, I can just about overlook the...um...'loose’ editing. Sorry, Peter).
Read this. It’s delightful.
April 25, 2019
I enjoyed The Cuckoos Of Batch Magna. It is very well written, engaging and amusing.
The basic story is pretty well-worn: a secluded rural idyll populated by a colourful group of often eccentric people, has its way of life threatened by an incomer bent on changing everything with a view to profit and “progress.” In this case, it’s Batch Magna, a small village on the Welsh border in Shropshire, whose de facto squire dies and the entailment of the estate means that it passes to a rather hapless New Yorker who gradually (of course) falls under the spell of the place and its people…
It sounds corny, and it is in a way, but Peter Maughan is a good enough writer to make this a very engaging, enjoyable book. It is steeped in rich, loving descriptions of the place, its way of life while his characters are very well painted and surprisingly recognisable and there is a very nice leaven of dry humour. There are moments of farce, some charming romances and a general atmosphere which is very endearing. Maughan is unafraid to confound expectations occasionally and there are some genuinely touching moments, all of which gives the book a fresh feel. I have to say that so little actually happens in the first half of the book that I began to get a bit restive, but things pick up wonderfully in the second half, which I loved.
I found this a very enjoyable read (in the end). Whether the idea can maintain a series remains to be seen, but I’ll certainly read the next one to find out. Recommended.
(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
The basic story is pretty well-worn: a secluded rural idyll populated by a colourful group of often eccentric people, has its way of life threatened by an incomer bent on changing everything with a view to profit and “progress.” In this case, it’s Batch Magna, a small village on the Welsh border in Shropshire, whose de facto squire dies and the entailment of the estate means that it passes to a rather hapless New Yorker who gradually (of course) falls under the spell of the place and its people…
It sounds corny, and it is in a way, but Peter Maughan is a good enough writer to make this a very engaging, enjoyable book. It is steeped in rich, loving descriptions of the place, its way of life while his characters are very well painted and surprisingly recognisable and there is a very nice leaven of dry humour. There are moments of farce, some charming romances and a general atmosphere which is very endearing. Maughan is unafraid to confound expectations occasionally and there are some genuinely touching moments, all of which gives the book a fresh feel. I have to say that so little actually happens in the first half of the book that I began to get a bit restive, but things pick up wonderfully in the second half, which I loved.
I found this a very enjoyable read (in the end). Whether the idea can maintain a series remains to be seen, but I’ll certainly read the next one to find out. Recommended.
(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
August 15, 2013
One should know by now to abandon expectations when reading a book one knows littleabout, but one is oft times an idiot. My mistake when reading The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is that I had P.G. Wodehouse in mind and kept looking for similarities when I should have just enjoyed the gentle ride down a river author Peter Maughan intended.
You see I was recently reminded of Wodehouse’s If I Were You, where the Earl of Droitwich discovers he really isn’t the rightful heir, having been switched at birth with the true earl, who has grown up to be a socialist barber. The faux earl uses the opportunity to escape marriage to that sort of imperious woman Wodehouse so often imagines and it all works out all right in the end.
Peter Maughan’s book involves Sir Humphrey Strange—or Humph as he asks everyone to call him—a poor relation of the previous baronet, General Sir Humphrey Myles Pinkerton Strange, whose death leaves Humph in possession of Batch Hall, the crumbling ancestral home of the Stranges. But Humph is burdened with death duties, the cost of fixing up the hall and the question of what to do with the tenant farmers and the renters of the no longer functional paddle steamboats on the river that runs through Batch Magna.
It doesn’t help that Humph is an unsuccessful American businessman whose only qualification to be a baronet is the circumstance of his being related to the late general, and that Humph feels he has to live up to the reputation of his successful but long dead father. In addition to that baggage, Humph has been persuaded to believe he must evict the paddle boat tenants and turn Batch Hall into a quaint hotel.
The strange collection of paddle boat residents include the retired naval commander who’s searching for Atlantis; earth mother Jasmine and her large family; the Owens, including river-savvy father Owen, his wife Annie who took care of the general, and their nubile daughter Ffion; and crime novel writer Phineas Cook. They live on four paddle boats, remnants of the Cluny Steamboat Company, which the general’s father brought to the town that straddles the Welsh-English border.
Of course the steamboat residents like their idyllic life on the river. They’ve formed a community of oddballs and are so reluctant to move they even contemplate finding an ingenious way for Humph to meet an untimely death. Meanwhile Humph, free of the distractions of his life in America, falls in love with the people, the land and the river. He also drifts from his dedication to his fiancée, an imperious sort of woman who only wants to marry Humph so she can be called Lady Sylvia. H’m, maybe there is some similarity to Wodehouse here.
The writing style is completely different, of course. Wodehouse plots are meticulous and seemingly fast paced (a weekend at a country house), although an objective observer might say not much really happens. Maughan’s style is leisurely and an objective observer might say not much really happens. If you’ve ever taken an English river cruise or traveled in a narrowboat, you’ll recognize Maughan’s style. The journey is its own reward and you won’t enjoy it if you try to speed it up.
I’m afraid that’s what I was guilty of, at first. I read a little too fast and didn’t take the time to let my fingers hang off the side of the boat and trail through the water. The plot is also like a water journey; it might twist and turn a little but you will predictably arrive at your destination. There is no great surprise here; you just wonder whether Maughan will resolve the conflict through a deus ex machina or whether he had earlier sown the elements of that resolution previously.
No, the pleasure of this book is the charmingly askew characters and the real sense that Maughan’s fictional community really should exist somehow. The author has crafted a nice group of eccentrics with a good balance of agendas: the boat residents initially despise Humph; the shop owners welcome Humph’s initial plan of evicting the river dwellers and turning the Hall into a tourist destination; the general’s granddaughter (unable to inherit because the land is entailed a la Jane Austen and Downton Abbey) treats Humph civilly but coldly; and those who don’t know who Humph is treat him warmly. The easy acceptance of Humph is ultimately the deciding factor that makes sure it all works out in the end.
It also helps that the setting is a little out of time and place. You begin to realize there are no mentions of smart phones or computers and I think it helps tie the book to a lot of British TV and film from the 1970s and ’80s. You can’t help but think of Local Hero and To the Manor Born. In fact many readers have suggested The Cuckoos of Batch Magna would make a great TV series, something I’m sure author Maughan, an ex-actor and script writer, has already considered. Fortunately, Maughan has written a sequel, Sir Humphrey of Batch Magna, that would drive a season (or series) two.
So if you haven’t already guessed, I’m heartily recommending this book to anyone who has the patience to enjoy it. Forget about my mistaken comparison to Wodehouse. It’s only resemblance is that it’s English (when it isn’t Welsh), there are finely drawn characters and objectively not a lot happens. But where’s the fun in being objective?
You see I was recently reminded of Wodehouse’s If I Were You, where the Earl of Droitwich discovers he really isn’t the rightful heir, having been switched at birth with the true earl, who has grown up to be a socialist barber. The faux earl uses the opportunity to escape marriage to that sort of imperious woman Wodehouse so often imagines and it all works out all right in the end.
Peter Maughan’s book involves Sir Humphrey Strange—or Humph as he asks everyone to call him—a poor relation of the previous baronet, General Sir Humphrey Myles Pinkerton Strange, whose death leaves Humph in possession of Batch Hall, the crumbling ancestral home of the Stranges. But Humph is burdened with death duties, the cost of fixing up the hall and the question of what to do with the tenant farmers and the renters of the no longer functional paddle steamboats on the river that runs through Batch Magna.
It doesn’t help that Humph is an unsuccessful American businessman whose only qualification to be a baronet is the circumstance of his being related to the late general, and that Humph feels he has to live up to the reputation of his successful but long dead father. In addition to that baggage, Humph has been persuaded to believe he must evict the paddle boat tenants and turn Batch Hall into a quaint hotel.
The strange collection of paddle boat residents include the retired naval commander who’s searching for Atlantis; earth mother Jasmine and her large family; the Owens, including river-savvy father Owen, his wife Annie who took care of the general, and their nubile daughter Ffion; and crime novel writer Phineas Cook. They live on four paddle boats, remnants of the Cluny Steamboat Company, which the general’s father brought to the town that straddles the Welsh-English border.
Of course the steamboat residents like their idyllic life on the river. They’ve formed a community of oddballs and are so reluctant to move they even contemplate finding an ingenious way for Humph to meet an untimely death. Meanwhile Humph, free of the distractions of his life in America, falls in love with the people, the land and the river. He also drifts from his dedication to his fiancée, an imperious sort of woman who only wants to marry Humph so she can be called Lady Sylvia. H’m, maybe there is some similarity to Wodehouse here.
The writing style is completely different, of course. Wodehouse plots are meticulous and seemingly fast paced (a weekend at a country house), although an objective observer might say not much really happens. Maughan’s style is leisurely and an objective observer might say not much really happens. If you’ve ever taken an English river cruise or traveled in a narrowboat, you’ll recognize Maughan’s style. The journey is its own reward and you won’t enjoy it if you try to speed it up.
I’m afraid that’s what I was guilty of, at first. I read a little too fast and didn’t take the time to let my fingers hang off the side of the boat and trail through the water. The plot is also like a water journey; it might twist and turn a little but you will predictably arrive at your destination. There is no great surprise here; you just wonder whether Maughan will resolve the conflict through a deus ex machina or whether he had earlier sown the elements of that resolution previously.
No, the pleasure of this book is the charmingly askew characters and the real sense that Maughan’s fictional community really should exist somehow. The author has crafted a nice group of eccentrics with a good balance of agendas: the boat residents initially despise Humph; the shop owners welcome Humph’s initial plan of evicting the river dwellers and turning the Hall into a tourist destination; the general’s granddaughter (unable to inherit because the land is entailed a la Jane Austen and Downton Abbey) treats Humph civilly but coldly; and those who don’t know who Humph is treat him warmly. The easy acceptance of Humph is ultimately the deciding factor that makes sure it all works out in the end.
It also helps that the setting is a little out of time and place. You begin to realize there are no mentions of smart phones or computers and I think it helps tie the book to a lot of British TV and film from the 1970s and ’80s. You can’t help but think of Local Hero and To the Manor Born. In fact many readers have suggested The Cuckoos of Batch Magna would make a great TV series, something I’m sure author Maughan, an ex-actor and script writer, has already considered. Fortunately, Maughan has written a sequel, Sir Humphrey of Batch Magna, that would drive a season (or series) two.
So if you haven’t already guessed, I’m heartily recommending this book to anyone who has the patience to enjoy it. Forget about my mistaken comparison to Wodehouse. It’s only resemblance is that it’s English (when it isn’t Welsh), there are finely drawn characters and objectively not a lot happens. But where’s the fun in being objective?
December 5, 2023
Not my favorite.
April 11, 2020
What a fun read, completely charming and gentle with plenty of silly situations and laughs to go around. I’m going to like this humorous series a lot.
June 6, 2013
Reading this book felt like I imagine taking a leisurely walk down an English country lane might feel, except that here you might pass into Wales somewhere along the way. The hedgerows are full of birds, the lanes edged with wild flowers, cricket is played on the village green and a regatta takes place on the river. In this setting lives a cast of eccentric and endearing characters who drive the story.
Batch Magna is a village on the border of Wales, a back water with a manor house, a pub, a few shops and a river with a bunch of houseboats on it. When the old lord of the manor dies without direct male heirs, the rules of inheritance deem that the property be turned over to an American nephew. Death duties and an ancient property badly in need of repairs means that something has to change, and with the help of some friends with questionable motives, Humphrey, the new lord, sends eviction notices to those on the houseboats. He plans to turn them into restaurants and accommodation for tourists. So we have Sir Humphrey (or Humph as he prefers to be known) on one side and the river dwellers on the other side.
Our first impression of Sir Humph comes before we actually meet him. Like most of the villagers we have an idea of him as some brash money-grabbing American, but things aren't that simple and it's that that makes this story interesting.
This is no fast paced action novel, it's unashamedly leisurely and character driven. The plot is simple, but the people aren't. We read on because we want to find out what happens not only to the boat people, but also to Humphrey who is not as rich as we thought, and has a softer heart than we imagined. The language is simple but beautiful and very English, to the point where I had to look up some of the terms (my kindle was able to enlighten me, luckily)
It took a while for me to get into it because the story begins slowly and I'm more used to stories that leap straight in and grab you, but eventually its pace and charm seeped into me and took me quietly but surely into the world of the Cuckoos of Batch Magna. Humph becomes the main character and it is his journey of self-discovery that gives this book it's guts.
The book is light-hearted and at times quite amusing, for example when Humph first arrives and is trying to get to his estate, he gets lost in the lanes that seem to go in every direction other than where he wants to go. When he comes upon someone and asks directions, the answer is, 'oh yes, it's simple.' Then she gives a convoluted series of instructions that are not at all simple.
This is a charming book that is so real that it makes me think, wow, the English really are like that! (Are they?) In some ways it's a kind of Wind in the Willows for adults. It's perfect for a lazy summer afternoon or a cosy evening by the fire.
Batch Magna is a village on the border of Wales, a back water with a manor house, a pub, a few shops and a river with a bunch of houseboats on it. When the old lord of the manor dies without direct male heirs, the rules of inheritance deem that the property be turned over to an American nephew. Death duties and an ancient property badly in need of repairs means that something has to change, and with the help of some friends with questionable motives, Humphrey, the new lord, sends eviction notices to those on the houseboats. He plans to turn them into restaurants and accommodation for tourists. So we have Sir Humphrey (or Humph as he prefers to be known) on one side and the river dwellers on the other side.
Our first impression of Sir Humph comes before we actually meet him. Like most of the villagers we have an idea of him as some brash money-grabbing American, but things aren't that simple and it's that that makes this story interesting.
This is no fast paced action novel, it's unashamedly leisurely and character driven. The plot is simple, but the people aren't. We read on because we want to find out what happens not only to the boat people, but also to Humphrey who is not as rich as we thought, and has a softer heart than we imagined. The language is simple but beautiful and very English, to the point where I had to look up some of the terms (my kindle was able to enlighten me, luckily)
It took a while for me to get into it because the story begins slowly and I'm more used to stories that leap straight in and grab you, but eventually its pace and charm seeped into me and took me quietly but surely into the world of the Cuckoos of Batch Magna. Humph becomes the main character and it is his journey of self-discovery that gives this book it's guts.
The book is light-hearted and at times quite amusing, for example when Humph first arrives and is trying to get to his estate, he gets lost in the lanes that seem to go in every direction other than where he wants to go. When he comes upon someone and asks directions, the answer is, 'oh yes, it's simple.' Then she gives a convoluted series of instructions that are not at all simple.
This is a charming book that is so real that it makes me think, wow, the English really are like that! (Are they?) In some ways it's a kind of Wind in the Willows for adults. It's perfect for a lazy summer afternoon or a cosy evening by the fire.
November 1, 2013
To enter the world of Batch Magna is to lose oneself in a parallel universe where most people are fundamentally decent and kind, despite being as kooky and crazy as coots. Peter Maughan has created some endearing and charismatic characters who take on so much life and substance that you find yourself wondering what they are doing while they are off-stage, and missing them when the last page is read (fortunately, there is a sequel).
The story revolves around the eccentric lives of the people who live on four moored paddle steamers in the Welsh Marches, along the border between England and Wales, their daily reality suspended in a timeless Peter Pan-like haze as unsubstantial as the mists rising from the river. When the old General, the squire of Batch Hall, dies without male issue, the line of succession leapfrogs to a distant American relative whose development plans for the place throw everything into disarray and effectively shatter the idyllic spell the paddler “water gypsies” have been enjoying without a thought for any other future. The sense of place is so strong and it looms so large in the consciousness of the characters that it becomes a major player in the narrative. The river people of Batch Magna are not saints, they all have their human quirks and idiosyncrasies, they feel pain and outrage and dream of revenge, but there is an underlying decency that is as reassuring as their eccentricities are amusing.
The writing is, in turns, lyrical, evocative, ironic, sardonic and borderline cynical, but always imbued with a compassionate understanding of the human condition. The action moves along at a gentle pace, in keeping with its bucolic setting, but by the ¾ mark, everything changes and the story picks up momentum, ending with a thoroughly satisfying denouement which leads us inevitably towards the sequel, "Sir Humphrey of Batch Hall". The style is reminiscent of the James Herriot stories but with an added quirkiness of language and original phrasing. I was left with the conviction that it would make perfect material for a television series. A delightful read, which might just restore your faith in humanity.
The story revolves around the eccentric lives of the people who live on four moored paddle steamers in the Welsh Marches, along the border between England and Wales, their daily reality suspended in a timeless Peter Pan-like haze as unsubstantial as the mists rising from the river. When the old General, the squire of Batch Hall, dies without male issue, the line of succession leapfrogs to a distant American relative whose development plans for the place throw everything into disarray and effectively shatter the idyllic spell the paddler “water gypsies” have been enjoying without a thought for any other future. The sense of place is so strong and it looms so large in the consciousness of the characters that it becomes a major player in the narrative. The river people of Batch Magna are not saints, they all have their human quirks and idiosyncrasies, they feel pain and outrage and dream of revenge, but there is an underlying decency that is as reassuring as their eccentricities are amusing.
The writing is, in turns, lyrical, evocative, ironic, sardonic and borderline cynical, but always imbued with a compassionate understanding of the human condition. The action moves along at a gentle pace, in keeping with its bucolic setting, but by the ¾ mark, everything changes and the story picks up momentum, ending with a thoroughly satisfying denouement which leads us inevitably towards the sequel, "Sir Humphrey of Batch Hall". The style is reminiscent of the James Herriot stories but with an added quirkiness of language and original phrasing. I was left with the conviction that it would make perfect material for a television series. A delightful read, which might just restore your faith in humanity.
June 2, 2013
When reading I rarely do this but at one point I had to turn to the last few pages to see what would happen. That's because I care so much for the characters that I couldn't bear to continue reading unless I knew at least one of the outcomes. I'm not a Wind in the Willows fan simply because I have a rat phobia and could not read the book that had a rat for a main character. Because the front cover, at least on the Kindle edition, advertised the book as “The Wind In The Willows for Adults,” I felt compelled to look up the synopsis and yes, the similarities are present. Inevitable comparisons to other authors are a good thing. It's like the old Sonny & Cher song, “The Beat Goes On” in that good writing, like rock and roll, will never die. So if I compare Peter Maughan to Alexander McCall Smith, know that I have compared Alexander McCall Smith to Barbara Pym and that is the highest compliment for me to bestow! I cannot see the merit in repeating other reviewers or telling the readers what they already know from the book blurb. So here are the elements that are important to me: Magical? Yes! Even the name “Batch Magna” seems to swirl in a bit of star dust. Character growth? Yes! Several of the characters manage to stumble along the path and discover a bit of maturity. Comedy (because life really is comic at times)? Yes! Chaotic scenes of husbands, wives, friends, lovers, hormonal teens and dogs, dogs, dogs--my absolute favorite characters--complete the necessary reading components for enjoyment. I've read 92 percent of the book and dread finishing it. I want to move on a houseboat, preferably in Wales-England-Wales. I want to sit in a pub as part of the off-beat denizens of Batch Magna (who remind me somewhat of Martha Grimes' group in the Jury novels; another comparison, another favorite). Did I tell you I don't want the book to end? Fortunately, this is the first in a series so it will continue and I can crawl between the pages, if one can do that using a Kindle, and re-enter the world of the Cuckoos.
October 30, 2013
If you’ve watched Downton Abbey you probably know all about entailed English estates. But Peter Maughan’s The Cuckoos of Batch Magna concerns a Marcher village in more modern times, set on the border of England and Wales, with a rather hapless American inheritor hoping to turn the world into a theme park. The combination of wry British humor, gorgeously evocative description, great characters, wonderful dialog and leisurely fascinating plot is masterful.
Imagine McCall Smith writing on the English-Welsh border, add soaring descriptions of meadow, river and home, build it all into chapters that end like well-made TV episodes, nicely complete and leaving you yearning for more, and you’ll get the picture. Life is slower here, like the rolling of the stream, but not necessarily quieter when the peacock screams. And the Strange family just might endure, under their “enameled coat-of-arms, a castle with a lion and otter rampant.”
Death duties threaten the village’s way of life—death to the lifestyle of small riverbank animals too, giving this story a nicely modern, but non-threatening ecological feel. The Wind in the Willows echoes pleasingly, coupled with TV’s Tales of the Riverbank. Owain, “who believed in the magic of otters,” and his friends will lose it all, unless a happy ending can be found. But this novel will keep you guessing; when you’ve guessed, it will keep you reading; when you’ve finished it will keep you longing to revisit and learn what happens next. The characters truly come to life in a world both real and beautiful, gently humorous, wisely honest, and genuinely fun!
Disclosure: The author offered me a free ecopy and I’m offering my honest review. I honestly loved it!
Imagine McCall Smith writing on the English-Welsh border, add soaring descriptions of meadow, river and home, build it all into chapters that end like well-made TV episodes, nicely complete and leaving you yearning for more, and you’ll get the picture. Life is slower here, like the rolling of the stream, but not necessarily quieter when the peacock screams. And the Strange family just might endure, under their “enameled coat-of-arms, a castle with a lion and otter rampant.”
Death duties threaten the village’s way of life—death to the lifestyle of small riverbank animals too, giving this story a nicely modern, but non-threatening ecological feel. The Wind in the Willows echoes pleasingly, coupled with TV’s Tales of the Riverbank. Owain, “who believed in the magic of otters,” and his friends will lose it all, unless a happy ending can be found. But this novel will keep you guessing; when you’ve guessed, it will keep you reading; when you’ve finished it will keep you longing to revisit and learn what happens next. The characters truly come to life in a world both real and beautiful, gently humorous, wisely honest, and genuinely fun!
Disclosure: The author offered me a free ecopy and I’m offering my honest review. I honestly loved it!
April 5, 2013
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna (Peter Maughan)
Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton, Squire of Batch Magna gives his rotting estate to a distant relative Humph (An American). Humph decides to make a huge profit by changing the backwater of Batch Magna into a theme park image of rural England. He envisions a vacation paradise for US millionaires. But the pensioners (tenants) have other plans, they refuse to cooperate.
Add to the mix of quirky characters, pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt. Commander James Cunningham they are determined to take on Hump and fight for what they feel is theirs.
A fun read. I really enjoyed the vivid detail that transported me to the border of Welsh territory. I look forward to more work by Peter Maughan.
Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton, Squire of Batch Magna gives his rotting estate to a distant relative Humph (An American). Humph decides to make a huge profit by changing the backwater of Batch Magna into a theme park image of rural England. He envisions a vacation paradise for US millionaires. But the pensioners (tenants) have other plans, they refuse to cooperate.
Add to the mix of quirky characters, pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt. Commander James Cunningham they are determined to take on Hump and fight for what they feel is theirs.
A fun read. I really enjoyed the vivid detail that transported me to the border of Welsh territory. I look forward to more work by Peter Maughan.
January 17, 2015
This writer is a master with words, sentences, setting....those I've recommended this book too loved it as well.
October 31, 2015
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is a marvel. Other reviewers offer similar (brief) positive endorsements. Let me add to this at some length.
First, what is Peter Maughan’s The Cuckoos of Batch Magna like? It is very reminiscent – NOT such a bad thing in a book with a warm heart, and a strong cast.
Indeed, this is a book that will remind some readers of other, many other, earlier, bucolic comedies – comedy masterpieces! (The Cuckoos of Batch Magna belongs in such illustrious company!)
Jerome K. Jerome’s three young boating men (to say nothing of the dog!) might have dallied here on another river voyage. Mr Pooter, the famous nobody-diarist might have recorded some of the daily life. Wodehouse’s unflappable and ever-resourceful valet, Jeeves, could have helped the hapless and accident-prone Bertie Wooster during one of his country rambles to this rural Eden. Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim would have felt at home here. Almost certainly Kenneth Grahame’s Ratty – who lived by and on the River, and liked nothing so much as messing around in boats! and Mole and Otter, and even that rapscallion Toad lived nearby, although the animals of Batch Magna, however intelligent, and often more intelligent than their human owners, are not anthropomorphic talkers. H.G. Wells’ Polly would have loved to settle down here! (Perhaps he did.)
Laurie Lee, and his loving, cider-drinking Rosie, actually lived in one of the nearby valleys!
Other readers will find the freshness of summer showers, the vibrant green of lush water meadows, and the soothing ripples of a meandering river. Not to mention the eccentric locals, and the differently eccentric newcomers who stir the villagers to unwonted and unwanted life.
This is not the vanishing tragic agricultural world of Thomas Hardy, with his unlucky milkmaids and shepherds, his hayseed rustics. Nor does it explore D.H. Lawrence’s dark tensions between brutal industrial wastelands and the freedom of green energies in nearby rural hamlets. Instead, it is a broadly similar, but more modern, and lightly comic version of a happy Hardy way of life – think of the festivals in Far From the Madding Crowd, or the jolly Woodlanders. (Think, also, of the happy side of A.E. Housman, who grew up nearby.)
Importantly, this hazy, mazy way of life, dozing pleasantly by a quiet river, is genuinely at risk in our globalised village and increasingly connected and technologized society. We need to defend and then celebrate robust alternatives to the snobbish one-upmanship, cut-and-thrust rat-race of any big city, and especially the madness of wheelers and dealers who want only to slash and burn, destroy heritage, and make a buck – LOTS of bucks!
Reading about Batch Magna, we may be reminded of the wonderful film, “The Titfield Thunderbolt”, Compton Mackenzie’s “Whisky Galore”, and classic Ealing Studio comedy films, such as “The Maggie” – which is the whimsically beautiful, and hilarious, story of a rusty little Scottish puffer boat, and a rich American’s cargo. Or we may be reminded of H.E. Bates’ “Darling Buds of May”, relocated westwards, in cider country, away from the hop fields of Kent. Or of the TV series To the Manor Born, with a slightly similar theme of clashing cultures, history versus modernity, tradition versus innovation. Or the endearingly eccentric inventions and magazine cartoons of Rowland Emett! (A sadly neglected genius!)
What is Peter Maughan’s The Cuckoos of Batch Magna about?
You might, similarly, ask what is Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood about? From the middle of one night to the next, Thomas’s two narrators show us who lives in and around the country village of Llareggub, and describe a little of what the villagers are getting up to at different times through the day and the two nights. Read the name of the quaint little Welsh village backwards and you will find, indeed, what happens the narrative or story. Not much, maybe, but the people Thomas describes are fascinating, attractive, amusing, and sometimes deeply moving, in many ways.
Of course, Dylan Thomas was a poet-bard! He has a striking Welsh flair for words, whether in his unique and mystical declamatory poetry, or his richly evocative, decorative prose.
Peter Maughan has his own deft prose style. Run on sentences. Speaking to the reader almost conversationally. Vividly capturing the voices and accents of his characters. And occasionally, a quiet, richly considered reflection. Here is an example, as Maughan describes the village and its surrounds:
“[There is a] Roman Bank, a lane running between fields, the verges, in front of hedge-banks cut with slate and dry stone, tall now with summer, with cow parsley and hemlock and goutweed, and with a smell to them like wet iron in the damp and mist. [Where a] cuckoo [calls] abruptly, an urchin sound, like a bit of street-corner mischief, … [and] two humped fields called Peny Brin, … [with] rabbits feeding among the moon daisies and buttercups, … [leading to] Cutterbach, a stretch of ancient woodland flushed each September by the Batch Valley Chase, home to badgers and owls as well as foxes, and fallow deer, relics of an ornamental deer park and a time when the [manorial] Strange family and the village were young still.”
Consider the way Maughan’s descriptive “camera” roves around the local pub:
“In the bigger of the [Steamer Inn’s] two bars, [was] a room of worn Welsh slate flagstones and high-backed settles, under beams of estate oak, a summer urn of foxgloves and bracken standing in the hearth of a fireplace big enough to stable a pony.”
Sometimes Maughan describes by cataloguing highlights:
“The cricket field and pavilion behind the churchyard, and the great, immemorial yew, the centuries in its vast girth corseted with rusting iron bands, shading a church which bore in its nave the marks of Norman chisels, and among its gravestones a sundial which told the time in Jerusalem. And the tall, star-shaped chimneys and gabled black and white timbers of Batch Hall, home to the Strange family for over four hundred years, set with Elizabethan ornateness in what was left of its park, its lawns, under horse chestnuts heavy with bloom, running down to the Cluny. And the castle, a fortress once against border incursions and the forces of Cromwell, open now to Welsh rain and rabbits, the archers’ loopholes in the ruined towers blinded with creeper, its red sandstone turning to coral in the sun. The forgotten country, this part of the Marches had been called. A country largely ignored by the rest of the world, apart from a trickle of tourists on their way to somewhere else, and the odd company rep who had taken the wrong turning, in a place with need for few road signs. A valley lost among its ancient wooded hillsides and winding high-banked lanes, on a road to nowhere in particular.”
Homer liked lists, also, and descriptive catalogues of household items and armour and weapons and treasure.
But what is Maughan TELLING us? What IS it about?
We are introduced to the residents of Batch Magna, an almost-lost little hamlet in the Welsh Border region of Shropshire, past the picturesque Cotswolds and rolling hills of Gloucestershire, nestling by the banks of the River Cluny. (We are told that the real city of Shrewsbury, on the River Severn, is reasonably close. But Batch Magna is a work of gentle fiction, albeit firmly set in a real world. The megatropolises of London and New York loom distantly, threateningly, at times!)
The River Cluny is the heart of the story, just as Kenneth Grahame’s wind blows in the willows that grow at his river’s edge, with Ratty’s burrow opening into the riverbank and Toad Hall dominating another section of the winding river.
The heart of the River Cluny, flowing through Batch Magna, is the frail but proud remains of the Cluny Steamboat Company: four small paddle-steamers, and the decaying ruin of a fifth. These were translocated from a Thames River passenger-service in London, several generations earlier, by the then squire of Batch Magna, Sir Cosmo Strange. Sir Cosmo is the father of General Sir Humphrey Myles Pinkerton Strange, veteran of the Great War, a one-time keen fox hunter, soldier and oddity, deeply respected in the village, a good deal of which he – the dying squire in the first pages of the novel – owns, more or less.
In the heady days between the two World Wars, before the Great Depression of the Nineteen Thirties, the five paddle-steamers ran passengers and cargo up and down the River Cluny. And they raced in the annual Regatta. And they provided an almost living thread that bound the towns and hamlets of the region together.
But times change. Mechanics retire, and die. Machinery wears out – or explodes! Roads and railways replace slow paddle-boats. Naturally, inexorably, sadly, Batch Magna and the Cluny Steamboat Company become, literally, a backwater.
The four surviving paddle-steamers become houseboats, owned or rented by Batch Magna folk. Some are more or less native to the area, like Owain Owen and his wife Annie and their boisterous family, and earthy Jasmine Roberts, folk-singer and fortune-teller and mother of a large family supported by social-benefits payments. Others are originally outsiders who have come to Batch Magna almost by accident, losing themselves on a meandering journey or quest among the hills and narrow winding country lanes, and then finding themselves, and their renewed lives, as they occupy their riverside houseboat homes. These include limping, one-eyed Lieutenant-Commander James Cunningham, retired Fleet Air Arm war hero, and his wisely patient wife, Priny, and Phineas Cook, three-times married bohemian womanising hack-writer of pot-boiler detective adventure novels.
Other people live on the land – the riverbank and fields and hills rather than on or beside the river. These include The Honourable Clementine Wroxley, Joint Master of the Batch Valley Chase, the local fox hunters; Dotty Snape who brews the local potent cider, known as Sheepsnout, and the pear-equivalent, ladies’ perry; and the ancient spinster, Miss Harriet Wyndham, amateur botanist and murder enthusiast; and Dilly Browne, the owner and landlord of the Steamer Inn, the Batch Magna pub; and Howell Pugh, the irascible hypocritical Welsh owner of the General Store and Post Office, busy-body, snob, and secret whisky drinker.
This may seem a motley crew. Indeed. Why not? All the better to tell you a tale with, my dear!
But then everything that happens in The Cuckoos of Batch Magna depends – after the first fatal sunset opening pages on the consequences of the death of the General, and the inheritance of the squire’s property!
“His housekeeper [had] said it would be the death of him. Standing about in a November drizzle after the Cenotaph service last year with all the other silly old fools, gossiping over the hipflasks as if in the mess, umbrella furled still because he was in town, the breast of his Gieves overcoat heavy with medals. Medals which went back to the pounded mud of Passchendaele, and a young moustachioed captain of the Cavalry of the Line eager to get there before Christmas, before it was all over.
When his father, Sir Cosmo Strange, the man who brought the paddle steamers to the village, died, the villagers and tenant farmers, and the heads of each estate department, including the senior master of the Cluny Steamboat Company, a half-pay Royal Navy captain from Cardiff, had followed his coffin, and the three shops the village had then had closed for the day. And soon it would be his turn. And who was there now, to follow him?”
Therein, indeed, hangs the tale!
The estate is entailed. This is a quaint but highly restrictive legal feature that forces the deceased property to pass to the direct male descendent. An entailed will also arises significantly in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (where, in his own lifetime, Mr Bennet enjoys an income that cannot afterwards be inherited by any of his daughters – hence the need for good marriages!) and in Sense and Sensibility. Because the General’s sons have all died before him, the entailed will means the General’s estate can NOT be inherited by his surviving grand-daughter, Sally Strange (a non-nonsense farmer). Instead it must pass to the most direct male heir.
This direct (or not so direct) male heir turns out to be Humphrey Franklin T. Strange, a chubby, naïve, feckless young American. He is the grandson of the General’s younger brother who had gone to live in America sometime in the Nineteen-twenties. (Humphrey’s American father had been a volunteer in the Eagle Squadron, an American fighter squadron in the Royal Airforce during World War II, formed before Pearl Harbour. But he had then spent the rest of his relatively short life in America. The truth of what he later did in America remains to be revealed.) Like Humphrey’s grandfather, younger siblings of an entailed estate’s heir could NOT receive a share in the estate, and often had to emigrate to find their own fortune – or otherwise.
Having grown up only slightly aware of his connection with British aristocracy and a great country estate, living humbly in the Bronx, Humphrey, who likes to be called “Humph”, surprised by the apparent windfall, hopes to cash in on his inheritance. Unfortunately the deceased estate must pay 70% Death Duties! It further turns out that the estate is not only in need of substantial refurbishment it is chronically short of funds.
This is the motivating core of the narrative suspense!
Will everything need to be sold off? Can Humphrey (or his scheming piranha-like gung-ho money-grubbing gold-digging American girlfriend, Sylvia, and his mercenary and secretively manipulative “uncle” Frank) turn the estate into a swanky country hotel, and a holiday resort? What will happen to the paddle-steamers and their eccentric but appealing occupants? Will the devious Mr Pugh expand his modest grocery shop into a chain of businesses, with hand-selected, naughty nubile shop assistants only too willing to play with him in the store-room after closing time – while Mrs Pugh watches television upstairs? Can Batch Magna defeat the neighbouring village of Blurford in the annual cricket match? Will Batch Magna win the Cluny Challenge Cup (which is not a “cup” at all, just a battered red fire-bucket, with a brass plate with “Cluny Challenge Cup” embossed or engraved on it, and the date it was first won, and, stencilled on it in white, the name of the paddle-steamer it had came from, the wrecked P.S. Sabrina), by beating the oarsmen of the nearby riverside village of Water Lacey – an important part of the Annual Batch Magna Regatta? If Humphrey, and Sylvia and Frank, have their way, will this turn out to be the LAST Regatta?
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is not a rip-snorting adventure or mystery, with high-speed chases, cliff-hanging daring-do, desperation, dark villains, brutal secrets, flying bullets, … although it does consider a helpful and interestingly wide variety of methods of murder and related ways of committing a perfect crime.
Instead The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is a charming comedy – yes, it is frequently funny, laugh-out-loud and chortle-splutter funny – with characters who are both interesting and appealing.
(What will teenage Ffion Owen do about her unexpected unmarried pregnancy? Will Miss Wyndham confront the local botanical would-be guru, Colonel Ash, about the specimen of moss campion Silene acaulis – she has, to her quiet delight, discovered where it has no right to be? Will Lucy the barmaid go on to bigger and brighter things when she is discovered by the chief reporter for the Kingham News and chosen to star in the next edition’s “Local Beauty Spots”?)
This is a story that delights you, while inviting you to speculate on HOW the financial, personal, cultural, and emotional conundrums can all be satisfactorily resolved. And it eventually rewards you with the Happy Ending so richly deserved, and hoped for, by all the characters (except piranha Sylvia and scheming, sneaky Uncle Frank – and Mr Dirty-Minded Pugh), and readers.
(It is a book that somehow cries “Happy Ending” from start to finish. But much of the charm and interest comes in the twists and turns – often surprising – that eventually lead to that profoundly-hoped-for conclusion. There is nothing wrong, inherently, with a book that points in the direction it is going. It is, quite simply, a different kind of book from the read-it-once-and-forget-it sensationalist page-turners that seem popular – but fleeting! The best books stand up to re-reading, savouring, reflecting, and remembering. The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is one of these best books!)
Why “cuckoos” in the title? This is not explained, but I will speculate. As a word to describe people, a “cuckoo” is a crazy or eccentric person – a “zany” or “maverick”, perhaps. Certainly Batch Magna has its share of such “cuckoos” or eccentrics. But they are not really crazy – they are part of the deeply satisfying charm of the book. (Charm, indeed: reading the book is like being under a magic spell.) (Isn’t England famous for its eccentrics?)
Zoologically, a cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of another, unsuspecting species. Then the hatchling cuckoo grows faster than its nest-mates, and quickly evicts them – and they die while the ousted nestlings’ actual parents mindlessly continue to feed the clamouring cuckoo-hatchling. (Nature red in tooth and claw.) Obviously there is some hint of cuckoo-nesting behaviour in the novel.
On the other hand, knowing that Peter Maughan was an actor, the title of the novel may refer (indirectly) to one of the classic Aldwych farces of Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest (1925). However, apart from both titles having the word “cuckoo”, and both being farces with hearts of gold! there is no other identifiable connection.
Why “Batch Magna”? Apart from the obvious fact that Batch Magna is (almost certainly) more important than Batch Minor (if it exists), or Nether Batch, or Upper Batch – joke answers that actually reveal nothing you couldn’t easily guess – this quaint place-name is as inexplicable as many real English place-names, such as Little Dribbling or Steeple Bumstead, and other classic not-so-real place-names, such as Taddlecombe Junction, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, and Foaming-at-the-Mouth. On the other hand, why not “Batch Magna”? Indeed.
Very highly recommended, and potentially the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Batch Magna and its ensemble!
John Gough – Deakin University (retired) – jagough49@gmail.com
First, what is Peter Maughan’s The Cuckoos of Batch Magna like? It is very reminiscent – NOT such a bad thing in a book with a warm heart, and a strong cast.
Indeed, this is a book that will remind some readers of other, many other, earlier, bucolic comedies – comedy masterpieces! (The Cuckoos of Batch Magna belongs in such illustrious company!)
Jerome K. Jerome’s three young boating men (to say nothing of the dog!) might have dallied here on another river voyage. Mr Pooter, the famous nobody-diarist might have recorded some of the daily life. Wodehouse’s unflappable and ever-resourceful valet, Jeeves, could have helped the hapless and accident-prone Bertie Wooster during one of his country rambles to this rural Eden. Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim would have felt at home here. Almost certainly Kenneth Grahame’s Ratty – who lived by and on the River, and liked nothing so much as messing around in boats! and Mole and Otter, and even that rapscallion Toad lived nearby, although the animals of Batch Magna, however intelligent, and often more intelligent than their human owners, are not anthropomorphic talkers. H.G. Wells’ Polly would have loved to settle down here! (Perhaps he did.)
Laurie Lee, and his loving, cider-drinking Rosie, actually lived in one of the nearby valleys!
Other readers will find the freshness of summer showers, the vibrant green of lush water meadows, and the soothing ripples of a meandering river. Not to mention the eccentric locals, and the differently eccentric newcomers who stir the villagers to unwonted and unwanted life.
This is not the vanishing tragic agricultural world of Thomas Hardy, with his unlucky milkmaids and shepherds, his hayseed rustics. Nor does it explore D.H. Lawrence’s dark tensions between brutal industrial wastelands and the freedom of green energies in nearby rural hamlets. Instead, it is a broadly similar, but more modern, and lightly comic version of a happy Hardy way of life – think of the festivals in Far From the Madding Crowd, or the jolly Woodlanders. (Think, also, of the happy side of A.E. Housman, who grew up nearby.)
Importantly, this hazy, mazy way of life, dozing pleasantly by a quiet river, is genuinely at risk in our globalised village and increasingly connected and technologized society. We need to defend and then celebrate robust alternatives to the snobbish one-upmanship, cut-and-thrust rat-race of any big city, and especially the madness of wheelers and dealers who want only to slash and burn, destroy heritage, and make a buck – LOTS of bucks!
Reading about Batch Magna, we may be reminded of the wonderful film, “The Titfield Thunderbolt”, Compton Mackenzie’s “Whisky Galore”, and classic Ealing Studio comedy films, such as “The Maggie” – which is the whimsically beautiful, and hilarious, story of a rusty little Scottish puffer boat, and a rich American’s cargo. Or we may be reminded of H.E. Bates’ “Darling Buds of May”, relocated westwards, in cider country, away from the hop fields of Kent. Or of the TV series To the Manor Born, with a slightly similar theme of clashing cultures, history versus modernity, tradition versus innovation. Or the endearingly eccentric inventions and magazine cartoons of Rowland Emett! (A sadly neglected genius!)
What is Peter Maughan’s The Cuckoos of Batch Magna about?
You might, similarly, ask what is Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood about? From the middle of one night to the next, Thomas’s two narrators show us who lives in and around the country village of Llareggub, and describe a little of what the villagers are getting up to at different times through the day and the two nights. Read the name of the quaint little Welsh village backwards and you will find, indeed, what happens the narrative or story. Not much, maybe, but the people Thomas describes are fascinating, attractive, amusing, and sometimes deeply moving, in many ways.
Of course, Dylan Thomas was a poet-bard! He has a striking Welsh flair for words, whether in his unique and mystical declamatory poetry, or his richly evocative, decorative prose.
Peter Maughan has his own deft prose style. Run on sentences. Speaking to the reader almost conversationally. Vividly capturing the voices and accents of his characters. And occasionally, a quiet, richly considered reflection. Here is an example, as Maughan describes the village and its surrounds:
“[There is a] Roman Bank, a lane running between fields, the verges, in front of hedge-banks cut with slate and dry stone, tall now with summer, with cow parsley and hemlock and goutweed, and with a smell to them like wet iron in the damp and mist. [Where a] cuckoo [calls] abruptly, an urchin sound, like a bit of street-corner mischief, … [and] two humped fields called Peny Brin, … [with] rabbits feeding among the moon daisies and buttercups, … [leading to] Cutterbach, a stretch of ancient woodland flushed each September by the Batch Valley Chase, home to badgers and owls as well as foxes, and fallow deer, relics of an ornamental deer park and a time when the [manorial] Strange family and the village were young still.”
Consider the way Maughan’s descriptive “camera” roves around the local pub:
“In the bigger of the [Steamer Inn’s] two bars, [was] a room of worn Welsh slate flagstones and high-backed settles, under beams of estate oak, a summer urn of foxgloves and bracken standing in the hearth of a fireplace big enough to stable a pony.”
Sometimes Maughan describes by cataloguing highlights:
“The cricket field and pavilion behind the churchyard, and the great, immemorial yew, the centuries in its vast girth corseted with rusting iron bands, shading a church which bore in its nave the marks of Norman chisels, and among its gravestones a sundial which told the time in Jerusalem. And the tall, star-shaped chimneys and gabled black and white timbers of Batch Hall, home to the Strange family for over four hundred years, set with Elizabethan ornateness in what was left of its park, its lawns, under horse chestnuts heavy with bloom, running down to the Cluny. And the castle, a fortress once against border incursions and the forces of Cromwell, open now to Welsh rain and rabbits, the archers’ loopholes in the ruined towers blinded with creeper, its red sandstone turning to coral in the sun. The forgotten country, this part of the Marches had been called. A country largely ignored by the rest of the world, apart from a trickle of tourists on their way to somewhere else, and the odd company rep who had taken the wrong turning, in a place with need for few road signs. A valley lost among its ancient wooded hillsides and winding high-banked lanes, on a road to nowhere in particular.”
Homer liked lists, also, and descriptive catalogues of household items and armour and weapons and treasure.
But what is Maughan TELLING us? What IS it about?
We are introduced to the residents of Batch Magna, an almost-lost little hamlet in the Welsh Border region of Shropshire, past the picturesque Cotswolds and rolling hills of Gloucestershire, nestling by the banks of the River Cluny. (We are told that the real city of Shrewsbury, on the River Severn, is reasonably close. But Batch Magna is a work of gentle fiction, albeit firmly set in a real world. The megatropolises of London and New York loom distantly, threateningly, at times!)
The River Cluny is the heart of the story, just as Kenneth Grahame’s wind blows in the willows that grow at his river’s edge, with Ratty’s burrow opening into the riverbank and Toad Hall dominating another section of the winding river.
The heart of the River Cluny, flowing through Batch Magna, is the frail but proud remains of the Cluny Steamboat Company: four small paddle-steamers, and the decaying ruin of a fifth. These were translocated from a Thames River passenger-service in London, several generations earlier, by the then squire of Batch Magna, Sir Cosmo Strange. Sir Cosmo is the father of General Sir Humphrey Myles Pinkerton Strange, veteran of the Great War, a one-time keen fox hunter, soldier and oddity, deeply respected in the village, a good deal of which he – the dying squire in the first pages of the novel – owns, more or less.
In the heady days between the two World Wars, before the Great Depression of the Nineteen Thirties, the five paddle-steamers ran passengers and cargo up and down the River Cluny. And they raced in the annual Regatta. And they provided an almost living thread that bound the towns and hamlets of the region together.
But times change. Mechanics retire, and die. Machinery wears out – or explodes! Roads and railways replace slow paddle-boats. Naturally, inexorably, sadly, Batch Magna and the Cluny Steamboat Company become, literally, a backwater.
The four surviving paddle-steamers become houseboats, owned or rented by Batch Magna folk. Some are more or less native to the area, like Owain Owen and his wife Annie and their boisterous family, and earthy Jasmine Roberts, folk-singer and fortune-teller and mother of a large family supported by social-benefits payments. Others are originally outsiders who have come to Batch Magna almost by accident, losing themselves on a meandering journey or quest among the hills and narrow winding country lanes, and then finding themselves, and their renewed lives, as they occupy their riverside houseboat homes. These include limping, one-eyed Lieutenant-Commander James Cunningham, retired Fleet Air Arm war hero, and his wisely patient wife, Priny, and Phineas Cook, three-times married bohemian womanising hack-writer of pot-boiler detective adventure novels.
Other people live on the land – the riverbank and fields and hills rather than on or beside the river. These include The Honourable Clementine Wroxley, Joint Master of the Batch Valley Chase, the local fox hunters; Dotty Snape who brews the local potent cider, known as Sheepsnout, and the pear-equivalent, ladies’ perry; and the ancient spinster, Miss Harriet Wyndham, amateur botanist and murder enthusiast; and Dilly Browne, the owner and landlord of the Steamer Inn, the Batch Magna pub; and Howell Pugh, the irascible hypocritical Welsh owner of the General Store and Post Office, busy-body, snob, and secret whisky drinker.
This may seem a motley crew. Indeed. Why not? All the better to tell you a tale with, my dear!
But then everything that happens in The Cuckoos of Batch Magna depends – after the first fatal sunset opening pages on the consequences of the death of the General, and the inheritance of the squire’s property!
“His housekeeper [had] said it would be the death of him. Standing about in a November drizzle after the Cenotaph service last year with all the other silly old fools, gossiping over the hipflasks as if in the mess, umbrella furled still because he was in town, the breast of his Gieves overcoat heavy with medals. Medals which went back to the pounded mud of Passchendaele, and a young moustachioed captain of the Cavalry of the Line eager to get there before Christmas, before it was all over.
When his father, Sir Cosmo Strange, the man who brought the paddle steamers to the village, died, the villagers and tenant farmers, and the heads of each estate department, including the senior master of the Cluny Steamboat Company, a half-pay Royal Navy captain from Cardiff, had followed his coffin, and the three shops the village had then had closed for the day. And soon it would be his turn. And who was there now, to follow him?”
Therein, indeed, hangs the tale!
The estate is entailed. This is a quaint but highly restrictive legal feature that forces the deceased property to pass to the direct male descendent. An entailed will also arises significantly in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (where, in his own lifetime, Mr Bennet enjoys an income that cannot afterwards be inherited by any of his daughters – hence the need for good marriages!) and in Sense and Sensibility. Because the General’s sons have all died before him, the entailed will means the General’s estate can NOT be inherited by his surviving grand-daughter, Sally Strange (a non-nonsense farmer). Instead it must pass to the most direct male heir.
This direct (or not so direct) male heir turns out to be Humphrey Franklin T. Strange, a chubby, naïve, feckless young American. He is the grandson of the General’s younger brother who had gone to live in America sometime in the Nineteen-twenties. (Humphrey’s American father had been a volunteer in the Eagle Squadron, an American fighter squadron in the Royal Airforce during World War II, formed before Pearl Harbour. But he had then spent the rest of his relatively short life in America. The truth of what he later did in America remains to be revealed.) Like Humphrey’s grandfather, younger siblings of an entailed estate’s heir could NOT receive a share in the estate, and often had to emigrate to find their own fortune – or otherwise.
Having grown up only slightly aware of his connection with British aristocracy and a great country estate, living humbly in the Bronx, Humphrey, who likes to be called “Humph”, surprised by the apparent windfall, hopes to cash in on his inheritance. Unfortunately the deceased estate must pay 70% Death Duties! It further turns out that the estate is not only in need of substantial refurbishment it is chronically short of funds.
This is the motivating core of the narrative suspense!
Will everything need to be sold off? Can Humphrey (or his scheming piranha-like gung-ho money-grubbing gold-digging American girlfriend, Sylvia, and his mercenary and secretively manipulative “uncle” Frank) turn the estate into a swanky country hotel, and a holiday resort? What will happen to the paddle-steamers and their eccentric but appealing occupants? Will the devious Mr Pugh expand his modest grocery shop into a chain of businesses, with hand-selected, naughty nubile shop assistants only too willing to play with him in the store-room after closing time – while Mrs Pugh watches television upstairs? Can Batch Magna defeat the neighbouring village of Blurford in the annual cricket match? Will Batch Magna win the Cluny Challenge Cup (which is not a “cup” at all, just a battered red fire-bucket, with a brass plate with “Cluny Challenge Cup” embossed or engraved on it, and the date it was first won, and, stencilled on it in white, the name of the paddle-steamer it had came from, the wrecked P.S. Sabrina), by beating the oarsmen of the nearby riverside village of Water Lacey – an important part of the Annual Batch Magna Regatta? If Humphrey, and Sylvia and Frank, have their way, will this turn out to be the LAST Regatta?
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is not a rip-snorting adventure or mystery, with high-speed chases, cliff-hanging daring-do, desperation, dark villains, brutal secrets, flying bullets, … although it does consider a helpful and interestingly wide variety of methods of murder and related ways of committing a perfect crime.
Instead The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is a charming comedy – yes, it is frequently funny, laugh-out-loud and chortle-splutter funny – with characters who are both interesting and appealing.
(What will teenage Ffion Owen do about her unexpected unmarried pregnancy? Will Miss Wyndham confront the local botanical would-be guru, Colonel Ash, about the specimen of moss campion Silene acaulis – she has, to her quiet delight, discovered where it has no right to be? Will Lucy the barmaid go on to bigger and brighter things when she is discovered by the chief reporter for the Kingham News and chosen to star in the next edition’s “Local Beauty Spots”?)
This is a story that delights you, while inviting you to speculate on HOW the financial, personal, cultural, and emotional conundrums can all be satisfactorily resolved. And it eventually rewards you with the Happy Ending so richly deserved, and hoped for, by all the characters (except piranha Sylvia and scheming, sneaky Uncle Frank – and Mr Dirty-Minded Pugh), and readers.
(It is a book that somehow cries “Happy Ending” from start to finish. But much of the charm and interest comes in the twists and turns – often surprising – that eventually lead to that profoundly-hoped-for conclusion. There is nothing wrong, inherently, with a book that points in the direction it is going. It is, quite simply, a different kind of book from the read-it-once-and-forget-it sensationalist page-turners that seem popular – but fleeting! The best books stand up to re-reading, savouring, reflecting, and remembering. The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is one of these best books!)
Why “cuckoos” in the title? This is not explained, but I will speculate. As a word to describe people, a “cuckoo” is a crazy or eccentric person – a “zany” or “maverick”, perhaps. Certainly Batch Magna has its share of such “cuckoos” or eccentrics. But they are not really crazy – they are part of the deeply satisfying charm of the book. (Charm, indeed: reading the book is like being under a magic spell.) (Isn’t England famous for its eccentrics?)
Zoologically, a cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of another, unsuspecting species. Then the hatchling cuckoo grows faster than its nest-mates, and quickly evicts them – and they die while the ousted nestlings’ actual parents mindlessly continue to feed the clamouring cuckoo-hatchling. (Nature red in tooth and claw.) Obviously there is some hint of cuckoo-nesting behaviour in the novel.
On the other hand, knowing that Peter Maughan was an actor, the title of the novel may refer (indirectly) to one of the classic Aldwych farces of Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest (1925). However, apart from both titles having the word “cuckoo”, and both being farces with hearts of gold! there is no other identifiable connection.
Why “Batch Magna”? Apart from the obvious fact that Batch Magna is (almost certainly) more important than Batch Minor (if it exists), or Nether Batch, or Upper Batch – joke answers that actually reveal nothing you couldn’t easily guess – this quaint place-name is as inexplicable as many real English place-names, such as Little Dribbling or Steeple Bumstead, and other classic not-so-real place-names, such as Taddlecombe Junction, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, and Foaming-at-the-Mouth. On the other hand, why not “Batch Magna”? Indeed.
Very highly recommended, and potentially the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Batch Magna and its ensemble!
John Gough – Deakin University (retired) – jagough49@gmail.com
September 29, 2020
Funny and well-written.
A semi-sleepy community with an assortment of interesting folks is about to be shaken up...something some residents were sure would never happen. When the estate's ancient squire (the good General, ready and prepared to defend his homeland from the Nazi soldiers, just in case the war isn't really over) passes, it is assumed that the overseer of the crumbling Batch Magna will be insider Sarah. It is not to be, and a hilarity rivaling Fawlty Towers ensues.
But it is the engaging and clever writing that is the most delicious part of this novel, one reads it the way one settles down with a box of the most delectable chocolates. Place a bit in your mouth, or in this case, brain...savor it and a few moments later, pop another.
Every reader will keep a few 'catch phrases'. One favorite cataloged in my brain bank will forever be used when my devilish pups misbehave.
When the children of Batch Magna's resident psychic get rambunctious, she calmly turns to the onlookers to explain 'they're at that difficult age, halfway between their aether body and their astral.'
But it's not just the humor that keeps this book in your heart. The telling of the General's exit from life is as sweet and insightful as you can ever read. The thoughts of a man who is slipping from this planet are gently chronicled. Reading the words, you can actually feel the process, experience the calm of what is a natural and inevitable part of all of us.
While some will hope for a sequel, I want so badly to see the FILM! This book cries out for a re-write as a screenplay.
I suspect that will happen, unless of course the producer/directors are halfway between their aether body and their astral.
A semi-sleepy community with an assortment of interesting folks is about to be shaken up...something some residents were sure would never happen. When the estate's ancient squire (the good General, ready and prepared to defend his homeland from the Nazi soldiers, just in case the war isn't really over) passes, it is assumed that the overseer of the crumbling Batch Magna will be insider Sarah. It is not to be, and a hilarity rivaling Fawlty Towers ensues.
But it is the engaging and clever writing that is the most delicious part of this novel, one reads it the way one settles down with a box of the most delectable chocolates. Place a bit in your mouth, or in this case, brain...savor it and a few moments later, pop another.
Every reader will keep a few 'catch phrases'. One favorite cataloged in my brain bank will forever be used when my devilish pups misbehave.
When the children of Batch Magna's resident psychic get rambunctious, she calmly turns to the onlookers to explain 'they're at that difficult age, halfway between their aether body and their astral.'
But it's not just the humor that keeps this book in your heart. The telling of the General's exit from life is as sweet and insightful as you can ever read. The thoughts of a man who is slipping from this planet are gently chronicled. Reading the words, you can actually feel the process, experience the calm of what is a natural and inevitable part of all of us.
While some will hope for a sequel, I want so badly to see the FILM! This book cries out for a re-write as a screenplay.
I suspect that will happen, unless of course the producer/directors are halfway between their aether body and their astral.
May 12, 2020
Wonderful storytelling, the characters are big bold and sometimes when necessary brash. I like the style of the writing, colourful and detailed enough to tell the story without slowing the pace of the read down too much. The story is both entertaining and interesting with lots of humour and a few giggles. The book is what I would call a good lazy day in the sun read.
May 18, 2019
Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
First time reading this Author
This is a real whimsical read with lots of laugh out loud moments I can highly recommend this book.
First time reading this Author
This is a real whimsical read with lots of laugh out loud moments I can highly recommend this book.
May 24, 2020
Love the atmosphere of the river life!
The descriptive language gives a wonderful sense of place. The story lines can get confusing, but it’s forgivable. I’ll keep reading because I enjoy this grown up wind in the willows.
The descriptive language gives a wonderful sense of place. The story lines can get confusing, but it’s forgivable. I’ll keep reading because I enjoy this grown up wind in the willows.
December 28, 2018
Delightful - a lovely read for anyone who enjoyed 'The Darling Buds of May' and Laurie Lee's 'Cider with Rosie'. A nostalgic pastoral and pleasant escape from our current violent world.
June 16, 2021
I felt I was there
June 15, 2013
Book Info
Kindle Edition, 308 pages
Published 2012 by Endeavour Press Ltd. (first published March 28th 2004)
ASIN B00AEAMRIO
edition language English
Source:EARC copy from author in exchange for honest review
Book Buy Links
AMAZON
B&N
When Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, huntin' shootin' and fishin' Squire of Batch Magna, goes to his reward (doubtless to find God as true-blue British as his more recent but equally worthy ancestors), his rambling but rotting estate passes to distant relative Humph, a hapless dollar doodler in New York.With $$ in his eyes, Humph decides to make a killing by transforming the sleepy backwater of Batch Magna into a theme park image of rural England - a vacation paradise for free-spending US millionaires.But while the village's threadbare businessmen see the plan as a windfall, the tenants of the estate's dilapidated houseboats are above any consideration of filthy lucre and stand their ground for tradition's sake . and because they consider eviction notices not to be cricket.Each disgruntled faction sees the other as the unwelcome cuckoo chick in the family nest! So, lead by randy pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt-Commander James Cunningham DSO, DSC and Bar, RN (ret) - a man with a glass eye to suit every occasion (and all painted with naval battle scenes where the Union Jack flies triumphant) - the motley crew takes on Wall Street . broadside to broadside
When approached by the author the quaint village and inhabitants of Batch Magna sounded like a refreshing change from Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy and Mystery Thrillers so accepted his kind offer to send me the book's Mobi file to read and share my thoughts upon when finished.
Having delighted for many years in watching BBC television shows as well as reading books that were both creatively penned by British authors there was no doubt in my mind that despite the utter serious nature of the passing on of Sir Strange, which left his estate tenants in the perilous position of losing the roof over their heads after years of enjoying life on the River Cluny, that the story would be filled with the kind of droll offbeat humor that I have come to expect which sets it apart from just being a story about inheriting a rundown property with the intent of turning it into a lucrative venture.
The cast of characters in this tale is huge, after all one cannot expect a village to be inhabited by just 4 or 5 people, and range from retired estate employees to families living on the houseboats to shop keepers whose sights are set firmly on expanding their businesses if the proposed vacation paradise venture gets off the ground.
The main characters are of course the ones that we spend the most time with, The Commander and his wife Priny; Phineas, his dog Bill Sikes and for a bit his son Daniel; Owain Owen, his wife Annie and 2nd youngest daughter Ffion; Jasmine Roberts and her brood of children, Clem Wroxley, Miss Harriet Wyndham and on occasion a bit of time is spent with the local shop owner Howell Pugh. This cast of characters are each in their own way endearing, or highly repugnant as in the case of Mr. Pugh, and they capture the spirit of a small town population quite realistically as we read through and learn more about them both individually and as a whole.
This is the type of storytelling that soothes ones need for the simpler flow of scenes that build at a slow pace and so easily followed, it is almost like one feels at home at a gathering listening to yarns spun by the elder family members who love to relive memories of times gone by.
By the time you finish not only will you feel satisfaction at how everything was wrapped up but you will also find yourself chuckling in approval at how young Sir Humphrey Strange finally found himself embracing his heritage instead of willy nilly with the best of intentions destroying it! I would be happy to return to Batch Magna and it's "cuckoos", both the feathered ones and the myriad cast of human ones, if the author ever decided to take us there again in future.
Take a step back in time and immerse yourself in this heartwarming tale of a young man whose dreams come true, just not quite the way he planned them to.
Kindle Edition, 308 pages
Published 2012 by Endeavour Press Ltd. (first published March 28th 2004)
ASIN B00AEAMRIO
edition language English
Source:EARC copy from author in exchange for honest review
Book Buy Links
AMAZON
B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS
When Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, huntin' shootin' and fishin' Squire of Batch Magna, goes to his reward (doubtless to find God as true-blue British as his more recent but equally worthy ancestors), his rambling but rotting estate passes to distant relative Humph, a hapless dollar doodler in New York.With $$ in his eyes, Humph decides to make a killing by transforming the sleepy backwater of Batch Magna into a theme park image of rural England - a vacation paradise for free-spending US millionaires.But while the village's threadbare businessmen see the plan as a windfall, the tenants of the estate's dilapidated houseboats are above any consideration of filthy lucre and stand their ground for tradition's sake . and because they consider eviction notices not to be cricket.Each disgruntled faction sees the other as the unwelcome cuckoo chick in the family nest! So, lead by randy pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and Lt-Commander James Cunningham DSO, DSC and Bar, RN (ret) - a man with a glass eye to suit every occasion (and all painted with naval battle scenes where the Union Jack flies triumphant) - the motley crew takes on Wall Street . broadside to broadside
My Thoughts
When approached by the author the quaint village and inhabitants of Batch Magna sounded like a refreshing change from Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy and Mystery Thrillers so accepted his kind offer to send me the book's Mobi file to read and share my thoughts upon when finished.
Having delighted for many years in watching BBC television shows as well as reading books that were both creatively penned by British authors there was no doubt in my mind that despite the utter serious nature of the passing on of Sir Strange, which left his estate tenants in the perilous position of losing the roof over their heads after years of enjoying life on the River Cluny, that the story would be filled with the kind of droll offbeat humor that I have come to expect which sets it apart from just being a story about inheriting a rundown property with the intent of turning it into a lucrative venture.
The cast of characters in this tale is huge, after all one cannot expect a village to be inhabited by just 4 or 5 people, and range from retired estate employees to families living on the houseboats to shop keepers whose sights are set firmly on expanding their businesses if the proposed vacation paradise venture gets off the ground.
The main characters are of course the ones that we spend the most time with, The Commander and his wife Priny; Phineas, his dog Bill Sikes and for a bit his son Daniel; Owain Owen, his wife Annie and 2nd youngest daughter Ffion; Jasmine Roberts and her brood of children, Clem Wroxley, Miss Harriet Wyndham and on occasion a bit of time is spent with the local shop owner Howell Pugh. This cast of characters are each in their own way endearing, or highly repugnant as in the case of Mr. Pugh, and they capture the spirit of a small town population quite realistically as we read through and learn more about them both individually and as a whole.
This is the type of storytelling that soothes ones need for the simpler flow of scenes that build at a slow pace and so easily followed, it is almost like one feels at home at a gathering listening to yarns spun by the elder family members who love to relive memories of times gone by.
By the time you finish not only will you feel satisfaction at how everything was wrapped up but you will also find yourself chuckling in approval at how young Sir Humphrey Strange finally found himself embracing his heritage instead of willy nilly with the best of intentions destroying it! I would be happy to return to Batch Magna and it's "cuckoos", both the feathered ones and the myriad cast of human ones, if the author ever decided to take us there again in future.
Take a step back in time and immerse yourself in this heartwarming tale of a young man whose dreams come true, just not quite the way he planned them to.
[EARC Copy from author in exchange for honest review]
May 6, 2013
When Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, Baronet and owner of a rundown rural estate on the border of England and Wales, dies without an heir, his holdings and title pass to a distant American relative who is also named Humphrey.
The American, Humph, is an easy-going short order cook with no independent ambitions for grandeur. However, he becomes the “cuckoo” in Batch Magna’s nest when an old family friend he knows as Uncle Frank persuades him that there is money to be made by evicting the tenants and turning the estate into a vacation spot for American tourists.
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is a lovely, meandering little tale that follows Humph as he travels to England to evict the house-boat dwelling tenants of his estate, a plan that suits his domineering fiancée very well. As pleasant as he is gullible, Humph happily wanders into a set of misadventures and unexpected relationships that change the way he views his duties as the 9th Baronet. At times, Humph is as hapless (and as endearing) as Toad of Toad Hall. There is often a feeling of “Wind in The Willows” at work here, but the story is definitely for adults.
Cuckoos is chock full of luscious descriptive language and fun character sketches. While I never laughed out loud, I often found myself smirking at a turn of phrase or a character description. It was just, quite simply, fun. One particular scene that took place in a muddy field still puts a smile on my face whenever I think of it on a dreary day. The humor is gentle, but it sticks.
The book has conflict, as all good books should, but it is a gentle conflict and you know that it absolutely must come right in the end somehow. How could it not when the new Squire (who just wants to be liked, after all) and the eccentric tenants he is intent on evicting are so made for each other? This novel certainly describes an old-fashioned rural Britain that doesn’t exist anymore. But it should. It really should.
When I think of books I’ve enjoyed with a rural UK setting, I think of MC Beaton and Alan Titchmarsch. By my reckoning, author Peter Maughan’s writing style has more in common with Kingsley Amis than either of those two. Don’t get me wrong here – I’m an MC Beaton fan and am currently reading my way through the full Hamish Macbeth series again. But I read MC Beaton for twenty or so minutes a night before I turn out the light and go to sleep. The Beaton books are formulaic and have no particular subtlety or beauty of language, so it’s easy to read a chapter or two when sleepy and pick the book up again later. Not so with The Cuckoos of Batch Magna. You’ll miss all the best stuff if you read this one when less than awake.
The author is very much a fan of the complex/compound/chock full of dependent clauses style of sentence construction. He writes grammatical but very, very, very long sentences. This may make the book difficult for some readers. You know your reading style; you will have to decide. Here is a passage that I happen to find gorgeous for its descriptive power, but which some readers may find a bit of a slog due to sentence length:
My personal choice? I would have broken a number of the longer sentences into more manageable bites. However, by the time I was several chapters in, the writing hit a more comfortable stride and I no longer found myself being distracted by overly long sequences of words. I instead found myself tickled by the sweet, charming, loving way in which the story and characters are described.
Do I recommend this novel? Yes! Wholeheartedly. It’s lovely. There are sequels to the books but they have apparently being held up by the publisher, which is too bad. I’m quite looking forward to the continuing adventures of Sir Humph and his merry band of men and women.
This review was originally written for IndieHeart.com, where we review Indie authors and post a daily selection of hand-picked free Kindle ebooks.
The American, Humph, is an easy-going short order cook with no independent ambitions for grandeur. However, he becomes the “cuckoo” in Batch Magna’s nest when an old family friend he knows as Uncle Frank persuades him that there is money to be made by evicting the tenants and turning the estate into a vacation spot for American tourists.
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is a lovely, meandering little tale that follows Humph as he travels to England to evict the house-boat dwelling tenants of his estate, a plan that suits his domineering fiancée very well. As pleasant as he is gullible, Humph happily wanders into a set of misadventures and unexpected relationships that change the way he views his duties as the 9th Baronet. At times, Humph is as hapless (and as endearing) as Toad of Toad Hall. There is often a feeling of “Wind in The Willows” at work here, but the story is definitely for adults.
Cuckoos is chock full of luscious descriptive language and fun character sketches. While I never laughed out loud, I often found myself smirking at a turn of phrase or a character description. It was just, quite simply, fun. One particular scene that took place in a muddy field still puts a smile on my face whenever I think of it on a dreary day. The humor is gentle, but it sticks.
The book has conflict, as all good books should, but it is a gentle conflict and you know that it absolutely must come right in the end somehow. How could it not when the new Squire (who just wants to be liked, after all) and the eccentric tenants he is intent on evicting are so made for each other? This novel certainly describes an old-fashioned rural Britain that doesn’t exist anymore. But it should. It really should.
When I think of books I’ve enjoyed with a rural UK setting, I think of MC Beaton and Alan Titchmarsch. By my reckoning, author Peter Maughan’s writing style has more in common with Kingsley Amis than either of those two. Don’t get me wrong here – I’m an MC Beaton fan and am currently reading my way through the full Hamish Macbeth series again. But I read MC Beaton for twenty or so minutes a night before I turn out the light and go to sleep. The Beaton books are formulaic and have no particular subtlety or beauty of language, so it’s easy to read a chapter or two when sleepy and pick the book up again later. Not so with The Cuckoos of Batch Magna. You’ll miss all the best stuff if you read this one when less than awake.
The author is very much a fan of the complex/compound/chock full of dependent clauses style of sentence construction. He writes grammatical but very, very, very long sentences. This may make the book difficult for some readers. You know your reading style; you will have to decide. Here is a passage that I happen to find gorgeous for its descriptive power, but which some readers may find a bit of a slog due to sentence length:
And the tall, star-shaped chimneys and gabled black and white timbers of Batch Hall, home to the Strange family for over four hundred years, set with Elizabethan ornateness in what was left of its park, its lawns, under horse chestnuts heavy with bloom, running down to the Cluny. And the castle, a fortress once against border incursions and the forces of Cromwell, open now to Welsh rain and rabbits, the archers’ loopholes in the ruined towers blinded with creeper, its red sandstone turning to coral in the sun.
My personal choice? I would have broken a number of the longer sentences into more manageable bites. However, by the time I was several chapters in, the writing hit a more comfortable stride and I no longer found myself being distracted by overly long sequences of words. I instead found myself tickled by the sweet, charming, loving way in which the story and characters are described.
Do I recommend this novel? Yes! Wholeheartedly. It’s lovely. There are sequels to the books but they have apparently being held up by the publisher, which is too bad. I’m quite looking forward to the continuing adventures of Sir Humph and his merry band of men and women.
This review was originally written for IndieHeart.com, where we review Indie authors and post a daily selection of hand-picked free Kindle ebooks.
June 11, 2013
Paradise almost lost - Saved through the magic of otters, perhaps?
Like the otters, Batch Magna makes a comeback-to a future just like the past, without the pollution, preserving all those delights of simple rural life on a river; with the abundant flora and fauna, for which there are no substitutes in "modern" life. Planned developments, apartment complexes: the very words are anathema to Batch Magna.
This is a conservationist story, so enchantingly and poetically told that the prose sings like the owls, larks, and rooks (and cuckoos). But it is not about environmental regulations - it is about a way of living. It is about a love of paddle steamers, barges, otters and all God's creatures great and small, and of Bill Sikes. The joy of this book for this reader, apart from the cadences and diversity of the language, was the peek into the hills and verges of the Welsh Marches, under the leaves, into the water of the borderlands between Wales and England, or is it England and Wales? Neither here nor there.
"Out of sight above the open fields, larks sang, their darting notes endlessly threading the air. Since she was [a] child Ffion had thought of that sound as a sort of conjuring trick, a trick of delight, their song somehow becoming one in her young imagination with a large glitter ball at her first circus, kept magically in the air, its hundreds of spinning, fragmented mirrors catching the light."
Around every tree, the past meets the present:
"And our William's over the other side, a younger brother of mine. Turned his tractor over up on the hills there, with him half under it. Took him hours to die, they reckon, and nobody to hear his cries but the sheep," the old man said, his voice like a mournful wind. "Crows had his eyes in the end. And John Hodges down there." He indicated a row of graves further down that side against the boundary wall. "Went to school with him, old John. Dropped down dead only a couple of weeks back, he did. In his hen house, on his way in with his breakfast."
"The future in a hurry, that's what had just roared up the High Street. Progress and modernisation, the rallying cry of the new Batch Magna. And where the American led, Mr. Pugh would not be far behind. After Sir Humphrey's successful planning application, Mr. Pugh's proposed extension of the shop into the back garden would, he'd been assured, be deemed complementary and necessary. It was, as he had learned to say, in the bag."
Tradition vies with modernity:
"So nothing, in fact, will change. Is that right?" he said slowly, still in the grip of everything suddenly changing. "Nothing will change," Humphrey assured him. Well, almost nothing, he thought, thinking of the visit he had yet to make."
"The cricket field and pavilion behind the churchyard, and the great, immemorial yew, the centuries in its vast girth corseted with rusting iron bands, shading a church which bore in its nave the marks of Norman chisels, and among its gravestones a sundial which told the time in Jerusalem."
Several reviewers have compared Maughan's writing with others such as:
Erica James, Marcia Willett and Rebecca Shaw, M.C. Beaton, Kingsley Amis. This reviewer says it is incomparably wonderful writing which made her think of Laurence Sterne (in terms of humor and "Learned Wit") and Thomas Hardy (in terms of class consciousness and social constraints that cripple lives). The conspiratorial villagers evoke the gentle humor of 'Waking Ned,' too.
Other reviewers have told you about the cast of characters, deftly brought to life by Maughan in word pictures such that one can see them clearly in the mind's eye(the eyeball that is not painted with the Union Jack), all the more lovable for their foibles.
"Turtle doves in the hawthorns on Snails Eye Island called, endlessly, into it, and the weeping willows were drenched with summer, trailing their branches in the water-lilies and sweetgrass, and their own reflection."
Snails Eye Island - that is where you should spend your next wee while. Learn some Welsh words and phrases. Buy 'The Cuckoos of Batch Magna' forthwith or at least sometime soon!(less)
updated May 25, 2013 03:20pm · delete
Like the otters, Batch Magna makes a comeback-to a future just like the past, without the pollution, preserving all those delights of simple rural life on a river; with the abundant flora and fauna, for which there are no substitutes in "modern" life. Planned developments, apartment complexes: the very words are anathema to Batch Magna.
This is a conservationist story, so enchantingly and poetically told that the prose sings like the owls, larks, and rooks (and cuckoos). But it is not about environmental regulations - it is about a way of living. It is about a love of paddle steamers, barges, otters and all God's creatures great and small, and of Bill Sikes. The joy of this book for this reader, apart from the cadences and diversity of the language, was the peek into the hills and verges of the Welsh Marches, under the leaves, into the water of the borderlands between Wales and England, or is it England and Wales? Neither here nor there.
"Out of sight above the open fields, larks sang, their darting notes endlessly threading the air. Since she was [a] child Ffion had thought of that sound as a sort of conjuring trick, a trick of delight, their song somehow becoming one in her young imagination with a large glitter ball at her first circus, kept magically in the air, its hundreds of spinning, fragmented mirrors catching the light."
Around every tree, the past meets the present:
"And our William's over the other side, a younger brother of mine. Turned his tractor over up on the hills there, with him half under it. Took him hours to die, they reckon, and nobody to hear his cries but the sheep," the old man said, his voice like a mournful wind. "Crows had his eyes in the end. And John Hodges down there." He indicated a row of graves further down that side against the boundary wall. "Went to school with him, old John. Dropped down dead only a couple of weeks back, he did. In his hen house, on his way in with his breakfast."
"The future in a hurry, that's what had just roared up the High Street. Progress and modernisation, the rallying cry of the new Batch Magna. And where the American led, Mr. Pugh would not be far behind. After Sir Humphrey's successful planning application, Mr. Pugh's proposed extension of the shop into the back garden would, he'd been assured, be deemed complementary and necessary. It was, as he had learned to say, in the bag."
Tradition vies with modernity:
"So nothing, in fact, will change. Is that right?" he said slowly, still in the grip of everything suddenly changing. "Nothing will change," Humphrey assured him. Well, almost nothing, he thought, thinking of the visit he had yet to make."
"The cricket field and pavilion behind the churchyard, and the great, immemorial yew, the centuries in its vast girth corseted with rusting iron bands, shading a church which bore in its nave the marks of Norman chisels, and among its gravestones a sundial which told the time in Jerusalem."
Several reviewers have compared Maughan's writing with others such as:
Erica James, Marcia Willett and Rebecca Shaw, M.C. Beaton, Kingsley Amis. This reviewer says it is incomparably wonderful writing which made her think of Laurence Sterne (in terms of humor and "Learned Wit") and Thomas Hardy (in terms of class consciousness and social constraints that cripple lives). The conspiratorial villagers evoke the gentle humor of 'Waking Ned,' too.
Other reviewers have told you about the cast of characters, deftly brought to life by Maughan in word pictures such that one can see them clearly in the mind's eye(the eyeball that is not painted with the Union Jack), all the more lovable for their foibles.
"Turtle doves in the hawthorns on Snails Eye Island called, endlessly, into it, and the weeping willows were drenched with summer, trailing their branches in the water-lilies and sweetgrass, and their own reflection."
Snails Eye Island - that is where you should spend your next wee while. Learn some Welsh words and phrases. Buy 'The Cuckoos of Batch Magna' forthwith or at least sometime soon!(less)
updated May 25, 2013 03:20pm · delete
May 25, 2020
Didn't really work for me. On the irritating side of quirky. Never mind.
March 9, 2020
Fabulous
I never thought I would ever read another book like this. Every page was a pleasure.
I can't wait to read the others but I intend to ration them out like good wine. Not to be drunk too quickly but savoured.
Just fabulous
I never thought I would ever read another book like this. Every page was a pleasure.
I can't wait to read the others but I intend to ration them out like good wine. Not to be drunk too quickly but savoured.
Just fabulous
September 12, 2014
When Sir Humphrey Strange, 8th baronet and squire of Batch Magna passes on, he leaves an entailed estate to his relative known as Humph, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx.
Now known as Sir Humphrey Franklin T. Strange, 9th baronet and squire of Batch Magna, he is persuaded by his Uncle Frank to turn the property into a theme-park for people rich enough to afford it. However, in doing so, he learns he will have to evict the tenants (pensioners) of the estate's houseboats to leave. This is easier said than done once Humphrey actually meets them.
When I first started reading this book I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it started slow; but soon I realized that I was being given a look into the daily lives of the tenants of Batch Magna: Phineas Cook, the Lt. Commander James Cunningham, Jasmine, Owain and others meet to discuss what to do about the new Sir Humphrey - deciding that they could find various ways to kill him - in order to stay in their beloved homes, the houseboats.
This book takes place over a very short period of time; time in which we get to know each person who lives on the boats and the people around them. Time to learn how they view their lives, their relationships, their families, their friends. It is a wonderful book, giving one the chance to see what life is like in a quaint English-Welsh border village with people you want to see the best for; and people you know deserve the worst. I grew to like these people - Phineas and Sir Humphrey the most - and if this is what Wales is like, I must certainly add it to my places to visit someday.
It is a journey for Humphrey - a small-time cook who believes he has just hit the jackpot with his title, landing not only that but the hand of a Wall Street wizard, Sylvia, as his soon-to-be bride. It is a journey that changes not only him, but the people around him.
Humphrey's journey to find himself and what he wants out of life takes him from the United States to Batch Magna, and it is indeed quite enchanting to travel with him as he makes his way from being unsure of what he wants to knowing what lies ahead.
The author provided a copy of this book in return for an honest review, but this in no way affected the review.
April 29, 2013
In the small, European community of Batch Magna, things have remained the same for as long as folks can remember. Families have stayed, thrived, & been content. On the river there sits a society of people who live on houseboats. A diversified bunch, they’ve put down roots per se & are content living on the water.
When town elder, The General, dies his estate is passed to his great nephew who is- an American. Part of the estate includes these houseboats. Unfortunately for those dwelling there, Sir Humphrey has decided that they have but 3 months to vacate. Perhaps he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with! They won’t be leaving without a fight.
Phineas, a writer & misguided ladies’ man, accompanies a glass-eyed Colonel, a very fertile Fortune Teller, & an amusing band of others preparing to go up against Sir Humphrey’s economic pursuits. Who will come out victorious?
It’s not often that one finds an author so skilled at storytelling that one can picture every bit of the story in their head. Peter Maughan has a true gift for vivid imagery. I’ve not encountered another writer who uses such beautiful wording. His scenery descriptions come alive as if they are a character themselves. Every one put a smile on my face.
Each character is essential to the storyline. He doesn’t waste time with useless dialogue. When swaying between bits of historical perspective, it’s done seamlessly. Even the animals in the story have personality.
From a plot standpoint, it is new & fresh. It’s lovely that the houseboat community pull together all their unique personalities to stand up for their homes. Although they outnumber Sir Humphrey, it’s still a bit of a David & Goliath story in its money vs. morals approach.
Mr. Maughan has penned a unique & splendid story that is sure to catch on in popularity. I highly recommend it & hand it a 5 of 5 stars rating for spellbinding descriptions, marvelous plot, & originality.
I received an eBook copy in exchange for an honest review. ALL opinions are mine.
Amazon Buy Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Batch-M...
When town elder, The General, dies his estate is passed to his great nephew who is- an American. Part of the estate includes these houseboats. Unfortunately for those dwelling there, Sir Humphrey has decided that they have but 3 months to vacate. Perhaps he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with! They won’t be leaving without a fight.
Phineas, a writer & misguided ladies’ man, accompanies a glass-eyed Colonel, a very fertile Fortune Teller, & an amusing band of others preparing to go up against Sir Humphrey’s economic pursuits. Who will come out victorious?
It’s not often that one finds an author so skilled at storytelling that one can picture every bit of the story in their head. Peter Maughan has a true gift for vivid imagery. I’ve not encountered another writer who uses such beautiful wording. His scenery descriptions come alive as if they are a character themselves. Every one put a smile on my face.
Each character is essential to the storyline. He doesn’t waste time with useless dialogue. When swaying between bits of historical perspective, it’s done seamlessly. Even the animals in the story have personality.
From a plot standpoint, it is new & fresh. It’s lovely that the houseboat community pull together all their unique personalities to stand up for their homes. Although they outnumber Sir Humphrey, it’s still a bit of a David & Goliath story in its money vs. morals approach.
Mr. Maughan has penned a unique & splendid story that is sure to catch on in popularity. I highly recommend it & hand it a 5 of 5 stars rating for spellbinding descriptions, marvelous plot, & originality.
I received an eBook copy in exchange for an honest review. ALL opinions are mine.
Amazon Buy Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Batch-M...
April 6, 2013
Droll, Entertaining, Humorous
“Welcome to Batch Magna, a village sitting out the centuries in a river valley in the Welsh Marshes. The forgotten country. . . this England that is half in Wales and the Wales that is half in England. A place on a road to nowhere in particular and in no particular hurry to get there, and where the world is always elsewhere, over there somewhere, beyond the blue hills of the Valley.” Peter Maughan
And such is the setting of this colorful, delightful tale of these characters in the village of Batch Magna and their absorption in the river abutting this town. Each character is a definite figure who adds to the flavor of the village, which is a good part of the estate of the late Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, commonly known as the General. Due to lack of funds, his castle and keep have become most run down and dilapidated. There are several abandoned paddlewheelers anchored along the river bank in which a few families have adapted and made into their homes. They are happy and live carefree lives. Also are small rundown dwellings for pensioners who pay a pittance of rent. When this upstart American from New York, who inherits the General’s estate including the title of Sir Humphry Franklin T. Strange, who is financially destitute also, learns that this property is his, a couple of American promoters convince him to evict the locals and make the castle into a modern tourist hotel and turn the village into a high class vacation spot.
When the promoters send ninety day eviction notices to all of these renters or squatters, pandemonium breaks loose as each in his or her own way reacts and connives to hang onto their homes. Poor Sir Humphrey, when he arrives is most unaware of the chaos ensuing, but learns of it by mixing with the locals and they not knowing who he is becomes the crux of the story. The British-Welsh way of looking at life is so different than the American way that is what makes the story so appealing and entertaining. I heartily recommend it for just good plain reading fun.
“Welcome to Batch Magna, a village sitting out the centuries in a river valley in the Welsh Marshes. The forgotten country. . . this England that is half in Wales and the Wales that is half in England. A place on a road to nowhere in particular and in no particular hurry to get there, and where the world is always elsewhere, over there somewhere, beyond the blue hills of the Valley.” Peter Maughan
And such is the setting of this colorful, delightful tale of these characters in the village of Batch Magna and their absorption in the river abutting this town. Each character is a definite figure who adds to the flavor of the village, which is a good part of the estate of the late Sir Humphrey Miles Pinkerton Strange, commonly known as the General. Due to lack of funds, his castle and keep have become most run down and dilapidated. There are several abandoned paddlewheelers anchored along the river bank in which a few families have adapted and made into their homes. They are happy and live carefree lives. Also are small rundown dwellings for pensioners who pay a pittance of rent. When this upstart American from New York, who inherits the General’s estate including the title of Sir Humphry Franklin T. Strange, who is financially destitute also, learns that this property is his, a couple of American promoters convince him to evict the locals and make the castle into a modern tourist hotel and turn the village into a high class vacation spot.
When the promoters send ninety day eviction notices to all of these renters or squatters, pandemonium breaks loose as each in his or her own way reacts and connives to hang onto their homes. Poor Sir Humphrey, when he arrives is most unaware of the chaos ensuing, but learns of it by mixing with the locals and they not knowing who he is becomes the crux of the story. The British-Welsh way of looking at life is so different than the American way that is what makes the story so appealing and entertaining. I heartily recommend it for just good plain reading fun.
June 11, 2013
This gently unfolding tale wends its way through the countryside of Batch Magna: curiously placed in the not quite Welsh, not quite English border. With the death of the squire, the village is tossed into turmoil, as everyone is concerned about what changes may come to disturb their quiet existence. Thus the stage is set to position factions: those who wish for progress, change and the increase economic potential, and those who have retreated or chosen the sleepy little space to quietly live their lives.
Most specifically a character driven piece, this is not full of action and quickly unfolding drama but more a quiet stroll down a country lane. Beautiful prose creates imagery that is easy to visualize, bringing the surroundings into clear focus as the characters slowly develop and gain substance as the story progresses. The conflict is one of the ages and common in many small villages and towns today: continue with the known, or progress forward to the unknown and very certainly different, the relationship of this different entirely dependent on your perspective.
This was an easy book to read, but required constant attention: characters are clearly presented, but in such a way as to be almost an aside to the perspective of the narration. Conversations are well presented and often quite funny, the author’s enjoyment of his own characters is apparent in their demeanour and presentation, with a touch of cynicism that doesn’t verge to overtly sarcastic or mean-spirited. Truly a delightful story: perfect for a quiet rainy afternoon spent by the fire with a cup of tea.
I received an eBook from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
Most specifically a character driven piece, this is not full of action and quickly unfolding drama but more a quiet stroll down a country lane. Beautiful prose creates imagery that is easy to visualize, bringing the surroundings into clear focus as the characters slowly develop and gain substance as the story progresses. The conflict is one of the ages and common in many small villages and towns today: continue with the known, or progress forward to the unknown and very certainly different, the relationship of this different entirely dependent on your perspective.
This was an easy book to read, but required constant attention: characters are clearly presented, but in such a way as to be almost an aside to the perspective of the narration. Conversations are well presented and often quite funny, the author’s enjoyment of his own characters is apparent in their demeanour and presentation, with a touch of cynicism that doesn’t verge to overtly sarcastic or mean-spirited. Truly a delightful story: perfect for a quiet rainy afternoon spent by the fire with a cup of tea.
I received an eBook from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
April 8, 2025
I have been known to try some books which are out of my comfort league, at least to cursory inspection. It is rarer that I like them because I am pretty set in my ways (even if that makes me sound older than my actual years). This was one of those odd cases.
We are introduced to a small town near the Welsh border in England and in this town we are further introduced to the odd set of people living on houseboats. This random group of people who over time have become family to each other are facing eviction. They band together to curse the faceless new owner of the estate. This new owner surprised me as well, his entire story arc was pretty unique considering the layers that make him who he is versus who he is thought to be. When I first started the book I thought maybe that I would find the descriptions too coarse for my liking, as I sometimes do (which is a personal thing). I was mistaken in this assumption, although the caricatures of all the people and their baser instincts are described, but in a realistic fashion. Their underlying humanity and better behaviour is also shown to us as the situations demand.
The humour was light and in the background of all those people just living average happy lives. They deal with setbacks with both anger and bluster but once that is spent, they just put their head down and make actual plans.
I could list the people here, but I won't because the introductions are part of the plot and a way to acclimatise ourselves with the author's narrative style. I have to say I enjoyed this book and look forward to knowing what happens next.
I am glad I got a chance to read this thanks to access by the publishers and NetGalley but the review is my completely unbiased opinion.
We are introduced to a small town near the Welsh border in England and in this town we are further introduced to the odd set of people living on houseboats. This random group of people who over time have become family to each other are facing eviction. They band together to curse the faceless new owner of the estate. This new owner surprised me as well, his entire story arc was pretty unique considering the layers that make him who he is versus who he is thought to be. When I first started the book I thought maybe that I would find the descriptions too coarse for my liking, as I sometimes do (which is a personal thing). I was mistaken in this assumption, although the caricatures of all the people and their baser instincts are described, but in a realistic fashion. Their underlying humanity and better behaviour is also shown to us as the situations demand.
The humour was light and in the background of all those people just living average happy lives. They deal with setbacks with both anger and bluster but once that is spent, they just put their head down and make actual plans.
I could list the people here, but I won't because the introductions are part of the plot and a way to acclimatise ourselves with the author's narrative style. I have to say I enjoyed this book and look forward to knowing what happens next.
I am glad I got a chance to read this thanks to access by the publishers and NetGalley but the review is my completely unbiased opinion.
May 28, 2013
Batch Magna is a village in the Welsh Marshes: Welsh, except when it's English; English, except when it's Welsh.
The old squire, the 8th baronet, has passed. Having outlived his sons and siblings, with his hands tied by the entailment, his estate passes to a great-nephew that he had never met. An American who knows nothing of their lives and who is certain to change everything, including himself.
This has been a difficult review to write. Not because the book is less than amazing, but because I simply do not possess the words to do it justice.
Set in the 1970s, the story takes readers to a place and time that exists only in the memories of those who lived there and then. The characters are amusing, annoying, and true to themselves. They are so precisely drawn that, after only a few pages, Cuckoos becomes a visit with old friends, sharing a remembered history.
It is, however, the author's nearly-poetic prose that elevates this book beyond mere story-telling. The use of language is beautiful beyond anything I've read in a very long time. I laughed, I sighed, and I cried a little when it ended.
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna belongs in every library, on every bookshelf. But, please, don't leave it on the shelf. Take it down and read it, often. Your mind and soul will thank you.
~*~*~
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary electronic galley of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
The old squire, the 8th baronet, has passed. Having outlived his sons and siblings, with his hands tied by the entailment, his estate passes to a great-nephew that he had never met. An American who knows nothing of their lives and who is certain to change everything, including himself.
This has been a difficult review to write. Not because the book is less than amazing, but because I simply do not possess the words to do it justice.
Set in the 1970s, the story takes readers to a place and time that exists only in the memories of those who lived there and then. The characters are amusing, annoying, and true to themselves. They are so precisely drawn that, after only a few pages, Cuckoos becomes a visit with old friends, sharing a remembered history.
It is, however, the author's nearly-poetic prose that elevates this book beyond mere story-telling. The use of language is beautiful beyond anything I've read in a very long time. I laughed, I sighed, and I cried a little when it ended.
The Cuckoos of Batch Magna belongs in every library, on every bookshelf. But, please, don't leave it on the shelf. Take it down and read it, often. Your mind and soul will thank you.
~*~*~
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary electronic galley of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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