The Harvest Artist | A Cosy British Village Story

Welcome to Once & Otherwhere, where the kettle is always near the boil and nothing very dreadful ever happens. Settle somewhere soft, let the lamp be low, and come with us to Little Mizzlewick for a while. October has come to the village, and the mist along Tom Armitage's lower field has not yet decided whether to lift or settle. Lucy Carter walks that footpath most mornings and knows every dip, bramble and awkward patch of mud along the way. What she does not expect is to stop in the middle of it and say, out loud and to nobody at all, that this is not right. There is something standing in the stubble. Something very large, made entirely of hay, and put there with a great deal more care than anyone would think to give it. Nobody saw it built. Nobody heard anyone working in the field. And by the time Little Mizzlewick has finished breakfast, most of the village has a theory, and a fair few have two. Then another one appears. Before long there is an ordnance survey map spread across a table in the Shepherd's Crook, held flat by a pint and a borrowed salt cellar. There are firm opinions about old harvest customs. There is at least one person filming the whole thing for the internet. And there is a growing feeling, among people who would never describe themselves as the sort to do such a thing, that somebody really ought to sit in a hedge until dawn and settle the matter. Because whoever is working in that field before sunrise is working in the cold, in the dark, and entirely alone. Little Mizzlewick would very much like to know why. Thank you for spending this time in Little Mizzlewick with us. Our stories are made for slow evenings, long drives and that quiet last hour before sleep. Stay as long as you like, and if you drift off before the end, the village will still be here tomorrow. If something mysterious appeared overnight in a field near you, how long would you manage before going to investigate? Tell us in the comments. A Little Mizzlewick story from Once & Otherwhere, where small stories have big hearts. Welcome to Once & Otherwhere. Stories from Little Mizzlewick, a small English village where something peculiar is always afoot. A prize marrow vanishes the night before the show. The church flower rota descends into open warfare. Somebody has been rearranging the noticeboard, and Sarah Logan has theories. In Little Mizzlewick, no mystery is too small to investigate thoroughly. And no investigation goes quite the way anyone planned. What you'll find here: Comic village mysteries with recurring characters and a rotating cast of suspects Absurdity played entirely straight, in the best British tradition Cosy countryside atmosphere; pubs, allotments, railway platforms, and at least one committee meeting that gets out of hand Puzzles solved, feuds resolved (mostly), and nobody ever seriously hurt except the occasional reputation New tales regularly. Subscribe, or you'll only hear about it second-hand at the Crook. All stories are fictional. Little Mizzlewick is an imaginary village; any resemblance to real places, people, or prize marrows is entirely coincidental.