The creature Les Dawson most feared was the mother-in-law. So it seems apt that Amy Pluckett (who spends a lot of time in the Institution at Miresea-on-Crouch) should send him the life story of Peregrine Oswald Potts-Belching, the unlucky boy whose mother-in-law was probably the most formidable ever Hitler. Peregrine's quiet life had been shattered when, in 1954 he was married off to the daughter of Frau Gruber, and the ancestral home of Hawsbortem Towers began to fill up with blond men. Who could save Britain from the Fourth Reich? Helped by his frail but murderous Aunt Maud, laying waste to the world of entertainment while trying to promote the less obvious talents of Pluckett's ventriloquist nephew, Happy Daze, they fight the good fight. By turns surreal and hilarious, Dawson's bawdy, barmy humour permeates the correspondence he claims to have with Pluckett (Miss). A marvellous novel. For years I have suffered from insomnia, but after reading this story for only five minutes I couldn't keep my eyes open' The Very Reverend Pillfuddle Truly a load of old cobblers' Shoe Repairers' Weekly