Family Matters

'The characters are quite extraordinarily living...A most original and grimly farcical situation' - Dorothy L.

SayersRobert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man.

In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artefacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs.

Robert's wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public.

Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering.

Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams in their peaceful hometown Shufflecester.

Everything is wrong - and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha's eye, they take a turn for the worse.

Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams' lives.

This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.