When the rector, Peter, and his wife Caroline, decide to go to Africa for a year to work in a mission, they take their twins with them. The village inhabitants whose lives revolve around the church and this family are bereft. They don't immediately take to the woman locum, Anna, who has modern ideas - happy clappy hymns and so forth - but she does fill the church with parishioners determined to keep an eye on her. And then she brings Paddy, a down and out petty thief, into their midst. He lives at the Rectory and there is speculation as to whose bed he shares. However, Anna is smitten by someone else, but he is a married man. The Women's Institute comes up with the idea of raising funds for Peter's Mission. There's an upmarket pyjama party, a hair dyeing competition, midnight skinny dipping and an afternoon at the Big House watching horse racing at Longchamps on a huge screen, drinking champagne, with more race money than they dreamed of riding on a horse called Major Malpas. Peter keeps in touch with the people of Turnham Malpas by email.When a message arrives to tell them that the twins have been kidnapped they are devastated and are more determined than ever to raise a substantial sum for Peter's Mission. Once again Rebecca Shaw has given us a hugely readable and enjoyable novel. She is a master at mixing pathos with humour and the excitement she instils in this engaging story makes it one of her very best.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'This gentle series has been a surprising success with fans keenly awaiting the next chapter in the lives of the villagers of Turnham Malpas.' PETERBOROUGH EVENING TELEGRAPH
About the Author
Rebecca Shaw qualified as a teacher of deaf children before raising a family. With the departure of the last of her four children she turned to writing.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, pleasant,
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This review is from: Whispers in the Village (Hardcover)
The much loved rector of Turham Malpas decides to leave England and do some mission work in Africa for one year. His wife, Caroline, and their twins go with him. A new pastor is assigned to the village while Peter is away, Anna, and her presence causes some conflict among the villagers. She is much more modern than the people are used to, and particularly causes division when she opens up the rectory to a down on his luck former (?) thief. Meanwhile, an organization in Turham Malpas hosts a variety of wild fund raising events in order to help fund Peter's mission work. This effort includes sponsored skinny dipping and town-wide gambling. Everything changes, however, when Peter sends news of complete devestation.
Quote: "A woman! They'd narrowly escaped having their own railway station, tolerated the coming of the wireless, then the telephone poles and TV, they'd embraced computers, mobile phones - and a blessed nuisance they were on the Saturday shopping bus - and digital this and DVD that, but a woman rector! This was one step to far." This eleventh novel in the Turham Malpas series has its ups and its downs. The Anna storyline falls a little flat, partly because of her watery personality and partly because Peter and his family are such an engrained pillar of village life that a whole exists without him. This lack is somewhat alleviated by the charitable efforts of the townspeople, which are entertaining and endearing.
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