Save Our Shop by Michael Roll

Save Our Shop by Michael Roll
Buy Save Our Shop by Michael Roll at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Humour
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: Glorious farce as William fights for his love and the village shop. Good Wodehousean fun.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 210	Date: April 2013
Publisher: Lulu
ISBN: 978-1291387384
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William Bridge was a talented artist - just a little too talented, as it turned out because the sub-editor could see exactly who the cartoon character was meant to be and that was why he ceased to be a journalist rather suddenly. He wasn't exactly spoiled for choice when it came to his next employment and that was how he found himself helping his Uncle Albert in the village shop, but there were pluses and minuses about the job. The biggest plus was that he met and fell in love with Sally, who was also helping Uncle Albert. The first of the minuses was that there was more than a little opposition to the match from Sally's stepmother, the redoubtable Lady Courtney. And then there was the armed robbery, the arrival of Albert's brother Neil who for urgent and perfectly valid reasons needed to be known as Aunt Isabel, the American security expert and his daughter whose expertise was in an entirely different area and some dodgy dealings about the future of the shop. No real problems there, then.

It's farce - glorious, wonderful, slapstick farce. The pace never lets up for a moment and you won't know whether you want to give young William a hug or a good talking to. Much in the way of Wodehouse the characters are entirely two-dimensional - more would be over-egging the pudding - and you can spot the baddies a mile off. The aristocracy is dim, bounders abound and the heroine is riven with jealousy if her beloved so much as looks at another woman. Only in this case the other woman doesn't want William to just look.

There's the obligatory pig farm which allows for passing Americans to pass out in the, er, worst possible place and a poorly cow who needed the medicine which caused said loss of consciousness. Rest assured though that comeuppances will be delivered to those in need and the problems will be resolved to the satisfaction of most of the participants. The plot is surprisingly complex for the genre and it says a lot for Michael Roll that he managed to sort everyone out. I was out of breath just from reading!

The book would have benefited from a professional proofread - I was pulled out of the story to reread sentences far too often - but the book is great good fun and I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If farce appeals to you then do have a look at Thank You, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse.

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