Mr Isbister’s Marvellous Ride

"It was the bane and the beauty of being a traveller, he supposed. To meet, to love, and to leave."

It's 1922, and Mr Roderick Throckmorton Isbister is an earnest, unassuming fellow whose life in a house of privilege in the quiet English countryside is mundane and unfulfilling. Since coming to Sowerby Grange some twenty-five years earlier as a reluctant groom to his wife Alice's equally reluctant bride, things had fallen rather short of his expectations, although not for a lack of interests. And his are an eclectic mix: art, fungi, amphibians.

His wife has never understood his fascination with art or the woodland world, so to avoid her disapproval, Mr Isbister indulges his pursuits surreptitiously. The chance to transform his unhappy existence comes about after he makes an inebriated purchase of a 1917 "Trusty" Triumph motorcycle from a dubious character with multiple guises.

The bike and the discovery of his wife's tryst with an old flame are the catalyst for Mr's decision to go adventuring. He's accompanied, on a whim, by his resourceful and enigmatic housemaid, Eliza, riding along in the sidecar, but when he finds an anonymous note tucked into his haversack warning him of her suspect past, our protagonist finds himself questioning his choices, struggling with his failings, and navigating the rocky road of friendship.

Endearing, big-hearted, humourous, Mr Isbister's Marvellous Ride is a delightful voyage of self-discover, and storytelling at its best.