LOVE ON A BRANCH LINE

A fanciful bit centers around Jasper Pye, deep in Civil Servitude, ready to bolt when a chance for a new assignment --investigating ""Output Statistics"" which has been forgotten since 1940, takes him to the Earl of Flamborough's estate. There the private railway, the crippled peer and his gardening wife, and his out-down-and-forth-right daughters quite devastate Jasper while the life of the Ministry's staff entrances him. Arcady- and its greenswards, its moats and castles, its family feuds and alliances, and the uncluttered, open, freedom of sex, drink, talk and action -- is just that for Jasper who learns to take embarrassing moments with a leap and whose decision -- when the project is closed down -- is to depart from this small stay in paradise with a less flamboyant female than those he has sampled. A fete, the trains, cricket, and the comedy of a proper, stuffy -- and unhappy-conformist experiencing uninhibited and off- bounds enjoyments, is a larky and moonbeam relaxation. Especially for fanciers of British imports but there's happy talk for a transatlantic audience too.