A satire set in a future England, in which a neomedievalist contest
among London neighborhoods takes a disastrous turn.
When Auberon Quin, a prankster nostalgic for Merrie Olde England,
becomes king of that country in 1984, he mandates that each of London's
neighborhoods become an independent state, complete with unique local
costumes. Everyone goes along with the conceit until young Adam Wayne, a
born military tactician, takes the game too seriously . . . and becomes
the Napoleon of Notting Hill. War ensues throughout the city--fought
with sword and halberd!
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English author, poet, critic, and
newspaper columnist known for his brilliant, epigrammatic paradoxes. His
best-known character is the priest-detective Father Brown, featured in
over fifty stories published between 1910 and 1936, who solves mysteries
and crimes thanks to his understanding of spiritual and philosophic
truths; and his best-known novel is The Man Who Was Thursday (1908), a
metaphysical thriller. In addition to The Napoleon of Notting Hill,
his first novel, he wrote several other near-future satires of England.
