a big novel about a small town when barry fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of pagford is left in shockpagford is seemingly an english idyll with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty faade is a town at warrich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils pagford is not what it first seemsand the empty seat left by barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity and unexpected revelations