John Herring: A West of England Romance. Volume 1 (of 3)

In the wind‑blown hills of West England, granite tors rise above ancient cromlechs, framing a world of stark beauty. The story is told in the rough local dialect, where even a cow may be called ‘he’ and a tom‑cat ‘her’, giving the narration an earthy immediacy. At the centre of this landscape lives the Cobbledick clan, a half‑naked, reclusive community that has made a crumbling cider‑cask their home beside a stone altar they call the Giant’s Table.

The narrative follows John Herring, a curious young man who ventures north and finds himself confronting the Cobbledicks and their forbidding cairn. As he navigates their hostile welcome, the listener hears the clash of dialect against the moor’s haunting silence, while hints of forgotten histories surface from the stones. The opening act builds a tense, atmospheric portrait of people on the edge of civilization, inviting listeners to wonder what will happen when curiosity meets such raw, unmediated life.