Sitting Ducks

by Sam Newman

Tipped off by a disgruntled local about the money to be made from a takeover of Wilberforce Original Brassworks, City speculator Mervyn Pusey decides to cast an acquisitive eye over the sleepy family business in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. As the board members turn to their London merchant bank for advice, their only slightly dotty personnel director continues to be more concerned about arrangements for the village show. While support from their London advisers lands the threatened company with the sarcastic behemoth Hugo Russell, whose entry to the village on the back of a tractor does little for his self-esteem, it also introduces them to Simon Beresford, guileless spin doctor, doting husband and welcome recruit to Bradburn's First XI. As each of Pusey's clandestine visits to Bradburn ends in ignominy, worse things befall his secret informant. Meanwhile, Splasher Shelmerdine's chimney cleaning challenge has mixed results, Miss Fitton's doily-napkins create a headache for Morris dancing academic Roger Spofforth, and it is left to the beautiful Julia Mowbray to attempt to beard decidedly potty Uncle Edwin whose shareholding could be the decisive factor in a battle that sets the guile of the City's money men against a family business with everything to lose...

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2014