One of fiction's greatest chancers - the story of Denry Machin and his unceasing, ingenious efforts to become a great man

Set in the raw, Victorian world of the 'Five Towns',The Cardtells the extremely funny and tangled story of Denry Machin's rise from mediocrity to fame through a series of ludicrous and yet perversely successful schemes. He dances, pleads, cheats and inspires his way through life in a series of set-pieces which wonderfully evoke a now long-gone world of civic balls, seaside excursions, newspaper boys and patent chocolate remedies. As everybody said after one of his most stylish coups, Denry 'was not simply a card; he wasthecard.'