Poles Apart

In the Malvoir Valley, a little-known corner of England, an elderly woman wills her landed estate to her middle-aged niece and rich, Californian husband instead of passing it to her grandson. In need of even more cash to fund their lifestyles, the new landowners team up with the leader of the local Council to develop part of their land. The move sparks upheaval in the local community, bringing into sharp focus the accumulated discontent over the power of vested interests. Into this turbulence step the Zielinskys, a large, extended family of entrepreneurial Polish workers. They are given free lodging in a dilapidated barn owned by Hugh, the dispossessed heir to his grandmother's estate. At first, few realise what their arrival could mean for Hugh and rest of the Malvoir Valley. Alex Weaver, the local Council leader, sees an opportunity to leave his mark on local history with a sports stadium, upmarket retail outlets and a large estate of mostly 'executive-style' homes. His party's 39 - 6 majority on the Council and his links to local building firms all but guarantee the realisation of his vision. Resistance, he believes, is futile. Residents in a village likely to be worst affected by the development begin their campaign of opposition and recruit the impoverished Hugh and his Polish allies to the cause. They form the backbone of a hundred or so inexperienced, political 'virgins' whose only real hope is to go down fighting. In a light-hearted satire, set one year before the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Oscar Fovarge presents a microcosm of the nation as a heavily outgunned community rises up to resist complacency, groupthink and venality.