Leslie Titmuss returns to Rapstone village and will do whatever it takes to fit in with the highest levels of society.

These plans are hampered by a real estate development that Leslie, due to his free market politics, can hardly oppose publicly.

In Paradise Postponed, he kept a large cast effortlessly afloat, but here he drives his two principals grimly forward, while giving short shrift to everybody else.

"[1] In reviewing the 2011 reissue, Robert Plunket of the New York Times called it "a classic comedy of political manners" and "a delightful book, funny, wise and ultimately very sad.

"[2] Thames TV adapted the book for a television series released in 1991, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and David Threlfall.