Derby Day

Product Description

As the shadows lengthen over the June grass all England is heading for Epsom Downs
- high life & low life society beauties & Whitechapel street girls bookmakers & gypsies hawkers & acrobats punters & thieves. Whole families stream along the Surrey back-roads towards the greatest race of the year. Hopes are high nerves are taut hats are tossed in the air
- this is Derby Day. For months people have been waiting & plotting for this day. Even in dark November when the wind whistles through the foggy London courts the alehouses & gentlemens clubs echo to the sound of disputed odds. In Belgrave Square old Mr. Gresham is baffled by his tigerish daughter Rebecca whose intentions he cannot fathom. In the clubs of St James rakish Mr. Happerton plays billiards with his crony Captain Raff while in darkest Lincolnshire sad Mr. Davenant broods over his financial embarrassments & waits for his daughters new governess. Across the channel the veteran burglar Mr. Pardew is packing his bags to return to the consternation of the stalwart detective Captain Mc Turk. Everywhere money jingles & plans are laid. Uniting them all is the champion horse Tiberius on whose performance half a dozen destinies depend. In this rich & exuberant novel rife with the idioms of Victorian England the mysteries pile high propelling us towards the day of the great race & we wait with bated breath as the story gallops to a finish that no one expects.