As editor of the local newspaper in the small, pleasant town of Badgers Heath, Oliver Kettle is expected to join in the locals' constant efforts to raise money for good causes, from karaoke marathons to sponsored funerals.

But with Bananaskin Week, the biggest fund-raising drive of them all, the hapless Kettle finds himself drawn into a spiralling nightmare of adultery, blackmail and intrigue. Too late, he realises that charity is the last consideration of his fellow citizens.

Keith Waterhouse