Mr. Weston’s Good Wine

Mr. Weston's Good Wine is a novel by T. F. Powys, first published in 1927. It describes an evening in 1923 when Mr. Weston, who is apparently a wine merchant, but is evidently God, visits the fictional village of Folly Down in Dorset, and meets some of its individuals, whose backgrounds and lives leading up to this day are described during the course of the novel. Mr. Weston's colleague is named Michael, which is an allusion to the Archangel. For a while time stands still, and these individuals, according to their possessing qualities of good or evil, find their ultimate reward. The fictitious village of Folly Down in this novel and other works by T. F. Powys is based on Chaldon Herring, where he lived from 1904 until 1940. Summary In the early evening of 20 November 1923, Mr. Weston and his younger colleague Michael drive in their Ford van to the top of a hill overlooking the village of Folly Down; Michael switches on a lighting system connected to the vehicle's battery, and the phrase "Mr. Weston's Good Wine" is displayed in the sky. Michael, reading from a book, reads aloud to Mr. Weston the names and background of some of the village's inhabitants, and Mr. Weston considers the likelihood of each one purchasing his wine.