SCANDAL IN THE VILLAGE

THE SIXTH IN THE CHRONICLES OF TURNHAM
MALPAS SERIES

When Jimbo Charter-Plackett's mother decides to retire to Turnham Malpas to be nearer her son neither he nor his wife, Harriet, realise just how much trouble she will cause. She is a domineering woman who imagines herself to be cleverer and wiser than anyone else in the village. Determined to carve a niche for herself in village life she steps in when the organiser of the Harvest Festival display breaks her leg with only a week to go to the big day. The subsequent uproar caused by her highhanded ways lasts for weeks.

Setting herself up as the guardian of the villagers' morals she is appalled by the open way in which Dicky, the scout leader, is courting Georgie, the pretty wife of the licensee of the Royal Oak. Messages of love chalked on the roads, roses placed in the pub's window boxes, and an illicit weekend of love cause her great consternation.

A further revelation causes her to organise a petition to have Dicky dismissed as scout leader, and have him and his sister hounded from the village. Only peter, the rector of the church, using his renowned charm can control her more outrageous actions: all this at a time when he is in despair about his own wife's health.

Finally, solutions are found, and Grandmama submits to the will of the villagers, who are determined no to allow her to spoil the charming and magnetic ambience of their beloved old village.