Humbridge by Anthony Parkin (Polperro Heritage Press, £8.95)

FACT: Anthony Parkin, who lives near Tenbury Wells, was for 25 years the agricultural story editor of The Archers.

Fact: Parkin left when he could no longer agree with the programme's editor Vanessa Whitbourn.

Fact: The cover of Humbridge looks remarkably like a paperback version of The Book of The Archers.

Fiction: Roger Pearson is a scriptwriter on a radio soap about a village called Humbridge.

Fiction: His editor is the formidable Amabel Pike, who keeps tight control on the goings-on of her version of everyday stories of country folk.

Fiction: Roger is a townie let loose on the countryside until he decides to put things to rights by moving to a smallholding and in doing so, begins to challenge Amabel's view of rural affairs.

I think you can see just where this novel - Parkin's first - is coming from.

Its basis is a blur between fact and fiction - that's if one can fictionalise something that's already fictional.

It's a jolly piece of mostly predictable nonsense but addicts of The Archers will have a grand old time wondering if some of the back-biting really did happen behind the scenes of their favourite radio programme:

"Roger's voice rose to a crescendo. 'What we've got in Humbridge is a farrago of political correctness.

'It's a suburban village dominated by urban attitudes and values. If you ask me the whole programme's nothing short of an attempt at social engineering'. "

Is that a conversation Parkin had in his own head? Did he actually utter it at a script meeting? Is it purely fiction?

Naturally, all agricultural elements of the story are spot-on and in Parkin's world, unlike Ambridge - fans note - a black character is stared at, pointed at and called black.

Another fact: The dictionary definition of umbrage is: offence; suspicion of injury; something which casts a shadow.

One more fact: Polperro Heritage Press is run by Jerry Johns of Clifton upon Teme, who was for many years, the BBC Press officer at Pebble Mill, where The Archers is recorded.

Then, suddenly last year . . . he left. Has he too, taken umbrage?

David Chapman