It took me a while to read this box set, as the stilted dialogue took some effort to overcome; having every character speaking in very proper English, e.g. "I did not think of that" rather than "I didn't think of that" made my eyes feel as though they were stumbling over the dialogue and my mind was banging into a wall, rather than flowing over the text naturally. This made it quite hard going for me, although I'm glad I persevered as the stories are quite clever (with the added bonus of being set in 'my manor'), the characters are beautifully written (Patience, Mr & Mrs Michaels and Basic being particular favourites of mine) and, although in my opinion not as funny as I think the author believes it to be, I can see and appreciate what he's trying to do, and it did, on occasion, succeed in making me laugh out loud. I'll definitely be getting the next box set, and heartily recommend you give it a go, too!