welshy72

The village of Churchminster, devastated by floods a year ago, has gotten through to the last four of ‘Britain’s Best Village’ competition so sprightly Clementine Standington – Fulthrope makes it her mission for the village to win, enlisting the help of her granddaughters Camilla, Calypso and the other villagers.

All the plans are going well until a film crew turns up at Clanfield House, situated in the village, to film a new period drama featuring star’s Rafe Wolfe and Sophie Highforth. Rafe wants Calypso, Sophia wants Jed, Camilla’s boyfriend and will stop at nothing to get him. Clementine just wants them all to leave so she can get on with the competition!

Told in the third person narrative,this book is a real laugh out loud book, a very tame Jackie Collins meets Jilly Cooper type read. Straight away the chemistry was there in the book for me. It’s a story of a village pulling together in good times and bad, sprinkled with huge amounts of humour.

I identified with all the characters, even if one or two of them were predictable, Camilla being a settled type of character while her boyfriend Jed being a stoic, quiet type. I think Camilla’s sister Calypso was the best character though, a type who had plenty of get up and go, single with plenty going on in life to keep her busy. I also loved Clementine, a dear old lady who only wants the best for everybody. I think all the usual characters you would expect in a book about a village were there, a Lord and Lady living in the hall, the busy mum running the pony club, the people running the local shop and pub.

The ending was a bit predictable, slightly cheesy but even though I wanted it to work out that way, I still felt slight disappointment that I had guessed the ending. A good uncomplicated read. I highly recommend this book.