The Sound Of Coaches

Description for THE SOUND OF COACHES by Leon Garfield:

"Once upon a winter's night when the wind blew its guts out and a fishy piece of moon scuttled among the clouds, a coach came thundering down the long hill outside of Dorking."

So begins a raffish, picaresque adventure laid in eighteenth-century England that tells of a foundling lad and his legacy, a travelling company of players, and as original a set of heroes, villains, and waspish characters to appear since THE BEGGAR'S OPERA.

A literate and beautifully crafted romance, THE SOUND OF COACHES tells of a rugged old coachman and his even more rugged wife who rides shotgun on THE FLYING CRADLE, the Chichester-London coach; Sam, their adopted son, who struggles to discover his origins; Jenny, the London chambermaid who loves Sam and who is determined to "keep herself clean"; and one Daniel Coventry, actor and supreme egotist. Amidst this startling cast, young Sam weaves grand fantasies about his legacy, a pistol and a ring, and the unknown father to whom they once belonged. Had he been a daring highwayman, who was hanged? Or was he a noble, dashing hero, a fit father for Sam to admire?

In a series of dramatic climaxes, continually and hilariously manipulated by Fate's cruel hand, Sam is finally able to realize that his own nature is more important than that of his parentage. A happy blend of poignant comedy, the intricately woven story is a robustly romantic tour de force of sure appeal.