They leave him very disoriented and hovering between desire and disgrace. Closing the place might seem a done deal.īut Pye is slowly seduced by Arcady: most particularly, there are Flamborough’s three lovely daughters: the nympho Belinda, unhappily-married Chloe, and the virginal, too-young, but frenziedly romantic Matilda. They have long ceased doing any real official work. The unit is staffed by the stern-seeming Scot, Professor Pollux, his assistant Quirk, and their secretary, the young, plain, eager-to-please Miss Mounsey. Jasper alights at a station called Arcady Halt. His family’s motto is hic manemus: here we remain. Legless since 1926, the Earl lives on the train, travelling endlessly forward and back.

The last part of his journey is on a steam train, owned by Lord Flamborough, who has purchased the local branch of the line. The locality is called Arcady, a strong hint that we will soon disconnect from the everyday flow of time. Ostensibly there to inspect it, his real, informal brief is to recommend its closure. Just as his frustration peaks, he is commissioned to visit an odd little unit of Her Majesty's Government based in a castle on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk - a wartime stopgap measure mysteriously prolonged.

Jasper Pye is an earnest young civil servant living with his mother, stung when various people, including a girlfriend of sorts, call him a bore. A tasteful and thoughtful comedy mixing myth, wish-fulfilment and English charm.

Love on a Branch Line by John Hadfield