Act One

Linked stories

Every Midsummer morning in Wether Hill, the Hall puts on its pageant. At the fourth bell the whole village falls down in the meadow as the Fallen, so the Hero has someone to stand over when he comes onto the bridge. The parts are handed out on old cards at the church door, and every card ends the same way: The Hill thanks you.

This year Hester Fenn, who keeps the shop at the bottom of the lane, sits down instead. She makes no speech. She just sits. Then, one by one, the people around her sit down too.

Over the year that follows, from the hay to the harvest, from a funeral at the Hall to the Sunday the cards come out again, fourteen linked stories follow the people the pageant always cast as parts: the shopkeeper, the old man who likes to lie and look at the sky, the steward who keeps the cards, the young man who plays the Hero. Nobody is a villain. Nobody shouts. And quietly, the whole parish changes.

Act One is a complete book: fourteen linked stories, one year, start to finish.

Coming to Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Start with the short story it grew from, free to read: Act One, the short story.