Ms Ann Elliott

That's Little Baddenham Ms Ann Elliott

That's Little Baddenham comprises 30 tales, some short, some tall, some old wives'. They abound in nostalgia, eccentricity, glimpses of otherworldliness. A dark secret simmers over 5 episodes, there are musicians, feminists, and lots of love, illicit, requited or not. With humour and poignancy, they explore the traumas of childhood perplexity, teenage capriciousness, mid-life crises and issues of an aging population. These Suffolk townsfolk present little vice, but follies and foibles galore. Harry and his grandad hatch a poisonous plot; mollycoddled Chris endures bullying at Scout camp while Marcus is too shy to ask the Vicar's daughter for a date. Hapless Barry falls for the Sat Nav lady. Attempting to squeeze into an ancestral dress, Louise joins Trim and Treat, while Freddy obsesses about bones. Rambling Rosie, re-creating Tudor life at Kentwell Hall, encounters time-travelling Dickon. Alice Bingham becomes addicted to hunting out elusive items in charity shops and poor old Nell, faced with a Mystery, identifies herself with Miss Marple. Annabel ponders the overall charms and drawbacks of living in Little Baddenham whose residents, all things considered, have 'little bad in them.' These gentle, or not so gentle, tales, are a good read to beguile the idle ten minutes.