The weather outside is cold and snowy, but Fuzzy and Coco are as warm as toast in the house, enjoying their favourite TV shows. Fuzzy loves the cookery programmes, while Coco is a huge fan of The Ice Factor, a celebrity skating competition. But some of their furry friends are not so lucky - it's freezing out in the copse, and someone has been stealing the animals' food! Fuzzy and Coco have to do something - can they use the skills they've learnt from their favourite TV shows to help their friends?
Eustace is undisputed patriarch of the Farquhar family. That is, he would be if everyone stopped mumbling, let him get on with his shaving and find his way downstairs.
It's not Henry's fault that he snores and that his marriage has collapsed. Or that he failed to get into the cricket team. But he has made up for it and is now a faster motorist than ever he was bowler. He is a good father too and one day, when he wakes up from day-dreaming, his son Kenneth will thank him.
It is good that Anne sleeps with a whistle in her mouth - how else could she terrify the burglars? As for Mathilda she would love to like her mother, but prefers going for long walks with the dog.
But what will happen to them all if the dog dies?
A devastating postscript follows the story. Placing this eccentric family in isolation after two world wars and at the beginning of our aggressive financial culture, it turns comedy into tragedy. This novel brings a very personal addition to the biographer's remarkable career.
