The Batch Magna Chronicles
5 total works
When Sir Humphrey Strange, 8th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, departs this world for the Upper House, what's left of his estate passes, through the ancient law of entailment, to distant relative Humph, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx.
Sir Humphrey Franklin T. Strange, 9th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, as Humph now most remarkably finds himself to be, is persuaded by his Uncle Frank, a small-time Wall Street broker, to make a killing by turning the sleepy backwater into a theme-park image of rural England, a playground for the world's rich.
But while the village pub and shop put out the Stars and Stripes in welcome, the tenants of the estate's dilapidated houseboats tear up their notices to quit, and led by pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and the one-eyed Lt-Commander James Cunningham, they run up the Union Jack and prepare to engage.
What readers are saying about The Batch Magna Chronicles series:"An enchanting mixture of The Wind in The Willows and The Darling Buds of May. An England that doesn't exist but surely should."
"Reading this book was like sitting down for a nice long chat with an old friend. I loved reading the Welsh village descriptions; it felt like coming home. ... I eagerly await the next instalment of the Batch Magna crew!"
"I first got this book out of the local library, and then brought a copy - I wanted to read it again and again. It's a treasure, a smashing read, funny and beautifully written."
"These books are such fun, darkly comic and full of great characters. ... Batch Magna is a place I would love to find, and the river sounds idyllic."
"Hurrah for Batch Magna, Humphrey and friends."
"I loved this book. It's lyrical and very amusing, with all the charm of an old Ealing comedy. ... More please Mr Maughan!"
"What an amazing writer! I have never found any descriptive writing that has gripped me so much before."
"A thoroughly enjoyable read. ... Is there another Batch Magna book on the way, please? Such a wonderfully descriptive bucolic and warmly 'human' story with echoes of the Darling Buds of May."
"A wonderful, funny, well-crafted escape from everyday life. If you love writing that absorbs you into the landscape you will love this book. Every sense was satisfied with the author's beautiful descriptions of the Marches. Escape from the tarmac, concrete and relentlessness of life with this stunning book. Thank you Mr Maughan."
"I absolutely loved this book and all the characters became so real to me, I just couldn't put it down."
Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And often does...
Life in an old steam boat deep in the Welsh Borders holds numerous charms, but the Commander’s wife Priny is suffering from arthritis, a condition not at all improved by their water-based lifestyle. The couple take up an offer from Humphrey, the squire of Batch Hall, of a straight swap: their boat, the Batch Castle, for one of the Masters’ Cottages facing their beloved river.
The Castle is restored to river-worthiness and starts plying successfully as the Cluny Steamboat Company to Shrewsbury and back. As a result it takes a good deal of profit away from a taxi firm in a local border town, much to the displeasure of the firm’s English owner, Sidney Acton. Enlisting the aid of two corrupt Welsh councillors, Acton plots against the new venture. Only time will tell if his sabotage attempts will bear fruit or blow up in his face...
Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And often does...
Sir Humphrey has offered to play Father Christmas at the local hospital, but disaster strikes when he realises he won’t be able to buy the sack of toys he’d promised the children.
Rupert, a gentleman of the road, is found asleep in an old car in the Hall’s coach house. He is scrubbed up and given a room at the Hall, where two guests are already staying: a businessman and his rather young female companion. When money goes missing from their bedroom, Rupert is accused, and Miss Wyndham, the village’s amateur sleuth, decides to investigate the matter.
Meanwhile, local author Phineas Cook has come up with the idea of a resident ghost at the Hall to attract paying guests. All goes smoothly until the ghostly actors spend too long in the pub one evening and their performance descends into sword-wielding chaos.
As always in Batch Magna, events somehow manage to turn out all right in the end – but in the most unexpected manner…
Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And often does...
When the old squire of Batch Magna died, the life of distant relative Humphrey, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx, turned into a movie. Now, as Sir Humphrey, he has acquired not only a new title but also a new love: the Honourable Clementine Wroxley. He and Clem plan to marry, settle into Batch Hall and begin a new life together.
Their finances at this early stage rest on the estate’s shooting and fishing, stepping stones to a more secure future. But one day a cold wind from beyond their valley visits Batch Magna in the shape of badger baiters discovered in Cutterbach Wood. They are routed, but their defeat entails such disaster that Humphrey and Clem are driven to the wall, left with no way out but to sell the estate, and their future along with it.
And then Miss Wyndham, village spinster and amateur sleuth, rides to the rescue on the 49 bus…
Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And often does...
A hapless gang of crooks, led by pawnbroker Harold Sneed, have managed pull off ‘the big one’: a wages snatch at a factory in Shrewsbury. Two gang members take the money back to Birmingham by train, changing at a station almost on the doorstep of Sir Humphrey of Batch Hall.
It’s there that things start to unravel. The money goes missing. Misunderstanding follows misunderstanding, until it leads the crooks to Batch Hall when everyone is busy with a historical re-enactment show. Among the replica firearms is a real gun, carried by Harold Sneed with murderous intent and Humphrey in mind.
Sneed is now convinced that Humphrey – an overweight former short-order cook from the Bronx – is a Mafia mobster lying low. And on top of this, he believes Humph has his money; as a result, the spectators at Batch Hall are in for more of a show than they bargained for…