William Nicholson is the author of the Noble Warriors Wind on Fire trilogies, as well as the Academy Award-nominated screenplays for Gladiator and Shadowlands. His writerly style would translate well to the screen: lots of dialogue, interior monologues and a breezy way with serious concepts.
On the surface, this is a contemporary tale of life among the English gentry, Sussex-country style, but there is great turmoil behind the scenes. Laura Broad, married mother of two, has just received a letter from Nick Crocker, her first love, who broke her heart 20 years ago. He is in town and wants to see her. This causes her to reexamine her marriage, her children, her entire domestic arrangement. Henry, her TV director husband, has problems of his own: a star who insults him on the set and tells him he can't do his job. Their son, Jack, has just written a composition that his teacher, Alan Strachan, did not smile upon. Henry is livid, railing against a teacher who thinks that punctuation is more important than concept.
Alan has just had his own writing rejected and is consoling himself with the porno telephone line when his delusional duplex neighbor comes screaming to his door, insisting that there is strange "banging" going on. Because he helps her, she decides that they will be lovers, even though she's old enough to be his mother.
The village rector, Miles Salmon, has lost his faith and, with it, his vocation. Out of kindness, he agrees to hold a private funeral for the dog of one of his parishioners. Why shouldn't there be animals in heaven, he reasons? A small local news story about the funeral is picked up and turned into a cause célèbre, costing Miles dearly.
Another of Alan's students, Alice, is being bullied by classmates. The teacher is oblivious until Alice's mother, Liz, points it out. Because he is attracted to Liz, he makes things right for Alice. In the process, it seems possible that Alan and Liz, who has yet to get over her ex, might get together, thwarting the dreams of Alan's neighbor and getting the ex out of the picture forever.
The only remaining farmer in this prettified countryside is losing his shirt and being harassed by preppy schoolboys nearby. One of them witnesses him killing a dog (the dog for whom the funeral is held) and this sets up a terrible situation for Dogman, as the farmer is called.
Nicholson interweaves all of these lives and stories in an insightful and entirely believable way, making trenchant observations about life in a small town, life with children and the state of matrimony.--Valerie Ryan
Shelf Talker: Life in a Sussex village may seem bucolic, but the villagers are all struggling with their own unhappiness, demons and delights.