The pompous and self-important Abbot returns from his heroics in the Chennai Bermuda Bowl to discover that his fellow monks have taken little interest in this adventure. It is no easy matter for him to once again endure the aggravating ups and downs, familiar to us all, of life as a bridge player. The Abbot plays matches and duplicate sessions against a range of colourful opponents. How can it be that a battle-hardened veteran of the Bermuda Bowl cannot always sweep such moderate opposition aside?

Claude Yorke-Smith, his overbearing brother from Devon pays the monastery a visit. The Abbot spends a week in the Convent of Hilda’s and is shocked by the severe attitude of the Mother of Discipline. In the final part of the book, the Abbot is visited by his partner from Chennai, the Parrot. How will the bridge players of Hampshire react to such a feathered and outspoken opponent?

Other Abbot titles by David Bird: Miracles of Card Play; Unholy Tricks; Doubled and Venerable; Cardinal Sins; The Abbot’s Great Sacrifice; Heavenly Contracts; Celestial Cardplay; The Abbot and the Sensational Squeeze; Divine Intervention; The Abbot, the Witchdoctor and the Disastrous Double; The Abbot, the Parrot and the Bermuda Bowl.