Welcome to the village of Notwithstanding where a lady dresses in plus fours and shoots squirrels a retired general gives up wearing clothes altogether a spiritualist lives in a cottage with the ghost of her husband and people think it quite natural to confide in a spider that lives in a potting shed. Based on de Bernières' recollections of the village he grew up in <i>Notwithstanding</i> is a funny and moving depiction of a charming vanished England.