Publisher's Synopsis
Brian Aldiss has created a celebration for Englishness, for the love of the foreign and for love itself Not too far from the City of Oxford is the obscure country village of Hampden Ferrers. And in the centre of Hampden Ferrers is the village church of St Clements. And as the church approaches its fifteen-hundredth anniversary, some of the villagers decide that this record of continuity and stability is a cause for celebration. But the vicar discovers a secret that threatens to undermine everything, and the arrival of two Chinese students and an Italian TV celebrity leads to a succession of love affairs. As usual with Aldiss, this novel brims with both comic and sinister invention. For the celebration is not only for St Clements but for Englishness too; for the love of the foreign and for love itself.
