The Nonesuch

300 pp. Instead of her more usual London or Bath settings, in this delightful novel - which is a comedy of manners every bit as much as a romance - Heyer takes her characters to the village of Oversett, in Yorkshire, close to Harrogate and Leeds. Sir Waldo Hawkridge has just inherited the run-down and ramshackle estate of Joseph Calver, purely on the basis that Sir Waldo was the only relative 'who paid as little notice of me as I did of him'. Naturally, there are relatives who are unhappy about this bequest, and these add a further element of humour to the tale, especially when one - Laurence Calver - follows Waldo to Oversett. Society in Oversett may not be what Sir Waldo is accustomed to, but the local residents are very quick to include him in their activities: balls, routs, simple country dinners, the ridotto that no-one came to, and quiet evening entertainments. It helps that Sir Waldo is known in London circles as 'The Nonesuch', a great Corinthian admired by many. And his nephew, Lord Lindeth, a charming and handsome young man, is of course the delight of the young unmarried girls.