Down the Drain

Will rustic retirement mean a comfy seat for Rear Admiral Frobisher Spinnaker? At the bottom of his cottage garden there's the most primitive of conveniences. If only they had mains drainage in Nun's Leching! Thatcher St Margaret RDC are all in favour, and soon Irish navvies have moved in, disturbing the peace with their JCBs and the odd wodge of Semtex... The locals are up in arms. Miraculous beverages, drowned machinery, a collapsed marquee and an escaped bull all help to preserve their villages from progress into oblivion. Even the Admiral has a part to play! Join them all in this delightfully anarchic romp through an England that surely still exists - somewhere in a field near you? Julian T Charman, or 'Chas' as he is more generally known, was born in Kent in 1934; moved to Surrey in 1936; was educated at Bletchingley Village School and Reigate Grammar School, both in that county. He also has very strong connections with Northamptonshire. Conscripted into the RAF on National Service (1952-54) he served this time largely in Southampton docks with a Movements Unit. All his working life was spent in the electricity industry: with the South Eastern Electricity Board at Dorking, and from 1962 with the States of Guernsey Electricity Board, from where he retired in 1999, as Drawing Office Supervisor. Chas is married and has two children and four grandchildren, the whole family living in Guernsey.