Linton House Preparatory School has mislaid its French master and James Hoskins is asked back for a second innings. His diaries, and letters to an old friend, show that he has not found the return to teaching to be as fulfilling as he had hoped it would be. Various characters at the school conspire to make his life difficult, principally the Matron and Form IIIB with whom he clashes too frequently for his liking. With the Second World War imminent Hoskins is determined to ensure that his final days at Linton House are as free from mishap as possible.

When Laura Gifford goes up to London to look for a private detective, she unwittingly sets off a train of events which throws everything and everybody into confusion, as the man she thinks she has hired to prevent a crime from taking place does his best to arrange matters along entirely different lines.

When Claude Nodmore arrives in London, having lost his job as a safari guide in East Africa, he meets a number of old friends in the Flotsam Club and is content to observe their behaviour and comment upon their activities. The trouble begins when he starts to act on his own initiative.

When the masters at Linton House preparatory school find themselves in difficulties, Mr. Melluish is not necessarily the first person they would think of to extricate them but all too often they find that he is on hand to show them where they have been going wrong and to illustrate his points with stories about his apparently endless stock of relations, who have, by exercising resource and tact, pulled themselves out of the soup.

Most institutions have their resident bore: the man who is at his happiest when he is given free rein to collar an audience and to keep a tight hold until he has satisfied himself that another life has been enriched by the fruits of his experience and wisdom. Such a man is Mr. Melluish. He occupies a chair by the fireplace in the masters' common room at Linton House preparatory school and he regards it as his mission in life to offer comfort and advice to the masters, mistresses and assistant matrons who inadvertently stray into his path.

Francesca Cargill is saddened by the unhappiness she sees around her and resolves to do what she can to mend sundered hearts and bring people together, not least her sister, Emmeline, and her fiance, Jerry Harrison, a writer of detective stories. Determined to make this as difficult as possible are the local policeman and a drippy female novelist, who meet each other in circumstances which surprise them both. The story takes place in the little village of Linton Musgrove, the setting for the author's previous novel, This Congregation Here Present, as well as some of the short stories in Bishop To Pawn

Nigel Moore is back with a further volume of his diaries designed to create a few more ripples in the placid lives of his admirers and detractors alike. Although the diaries cover the same period as Estate Life, he has brought a fresh eye to the burning questions of the day with a perspective which is uniquely his own, and which he is convinced his followers would do well to adopt, if they are to face an uncertain future with the same confidence which he has always displayed

Ten more stories which feature characters from 'This Congregation Here Present' and 'Bishop To Pawn' as well as some new people introduced by Mr. Melluish, the sage of Linton House preparatory school. All of the stories are concerned in some way or another with the problems which arise when men and women try to assert their dominance over each other. Only one thing is certain: there are no easy winners.

In all the years Nigel Moore practised estate management he tried to prove that an indomitable will and self-belief would see him through the vicissitudes of life. If this was not always possible, it was largely because of the determination of his support staff, and those he considered to be his friends, to undermine him at every opportunity -- or so he believed. If the various constituent members of this group were as incompetent as Moore believed, it is hardly likely that they would be able to be successful in their enterprise without the guidance he was always willing to offer. However, this volume of diaries is proof of the contention that it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep a good man down. Nigel Moore is proud to be a man who is as at home in the mosh-pit as he is in the pavilion at Lord's: truly, a man for all seasons.

In this collection of short stories we meet several new characters from the author's fictional village of Linton Musgrove. Jerry Harrison, a writer of crime fiction, and his girlfriend, Emmeline Cargill, are recent arrivals in Linton Musgrove who appear in five of the stories. Oliver Melluish, the senior master at Linton House School uses his long experience to help younger masters out of their difficulties in a further two. The remaining three stories belong to some of the mildly eccentric clergymen who first appeared in This Congregation Here Present.

Are all curates chumps? Certainly that would seem to be the case here. Add into the mix a loony bishop; an imperious huntswoman; a criminally-inclined prep. school headmaster together with his flatulent staff; a frivolous, partying vamp, her verbally incontinent butler and a bible-quoting vicar's wife, all overseen by the incompetent local policeman and there are the ingredients of an entertaining rural romp set in an age of relative innocence.