1 h 57 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Cullerne, a carved shield can hold a secret, and an old church can seem to keep watch.
The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner follows a young man trained in architecture into the shadowy life of an English town. His work leads him among church towers, old records and family arms. Here, stone and glass are more than decoration: a pattern on a shield can point toward a buried story.
At the heart of Cullerne stands the Minster, a presence as strong as any person. Around it move old families, church officials and men of business, their loyalties tangled. As the young architect looks more closely, the mystery turns from buildings to the people behind them, and the mood grows darker.
What you’ll discover
- A town with secrets Explore streets, close and tower where the weight of the past fills the scene.
- The language of shields Discover how a wavy, cloud-like division on a shield becomes part of a puzzle.
- An architect's careful eye See old buildings through the precise attention of a young man trained to study them.
- Loyalties beneath the stone Look beyond carved arms to families, church officials and businessmen bound by tangled loyalties.
- A slowly gathering darkness Settle into a steady Gothic mystery whose damp, shadowy atmosphere matters more than speed.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy cathedral towns, shadowy family secrets, gentle comedy about clergy and gossips, and old buildings that seem to speak. Fans of Victorian mystery and brooding atmosphere will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A cracked tower and a wet arrival
- A shabby house and a fearful organist
- The sexton's tale and a puzzling offer
- A stranger in the Fording stall
- Fear, drink and a promise to a bishop
- A crack in the wall and a sleepless night
- A rejected suitor and a town that talks
- Inheritance, class and the weight of the past
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Edward WestrayA thin, scrupulous young architect and water drinker who comes to repair the minster and cannot stop hearing the tower arches warn him.
- Lord BlandamerThe long-absent master of Fording, grave and courteous, who pays for the church and takes a keen interest in the people of Cullerne.
- Mr SharnallThe minster organist, brilliant, poor and afraid, who drinks to forget and is certain that Martin Joliffe's papers hold a secret.
- Anastasia JoliffeA tall, romantic, well-read girl of nineteen who dreams of being a novelist and finds her heart drawn to a powerful stranger.
- Miss Euphemia JoliffeAnastasia's aunt, a gentle, sixty-year-old landlady who keeps her pride and her debts and loves a title almost as much as she loves her niece.
- Martin JoliffeMiss Joliffe's late half brother, called Old Nebuly, who spent his life trying to prove he was the true Blandamer heir.
- Canon ParkynThe pompous rector of Cullerne, who loves gossip, flattery and his own jokes more than the care of his church.
- Clerk JanawayThe minster's clerk and sexton, a talkative teetotaler who knows every family story in town and tells them to anyone who will listen.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Nebuly Coat
by John Meade Falkner · 1903
An architect sent to mend a cracked cathedral tower finds a green and silver shield that haunts a whole town.
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In short
The Nebuly Coat is a Gothic mystery by John Meade Falkner, an English novelist who also wrote Moonfleet. It is set in the decaying seaport of Cullerne, where a great Norman church stands over a sleepy market square.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A cracked tower and a wet arrival
The book opens with Sir George Farquhar, a busy London architect, sending his junior Westray to oversee repairs at Cullerne Minster. Sir George is more worried about critics than about the building. He admits there is old trouble in the central tower, but there is no money to deal with it, so he tells Westray to say nothing.
Westray arrives by a branch line on a drenched afternoon. Cullerne was once a proud port that sent ships against the Armada, but its river silted up and the sea moved away. The town now lives on sheep from the salt marshes and on memories. The great church of Saint Sepulchre fills one side of the market square and looms through the rain far larger than the plans had led him to expect.
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What is The Nebuly Coat about?
It follows a young architect sent to repair the failing tower of a church in the decaying seaport of Cullerne. He gets drawn into the secrets of a local family, a missing name, and a shield painted in a church window.
What does nebuly mean?
Nebuly is a term from heraldry for wavy, cloud-like lines dividing a shield. In the novel, the nebuly coat is the Blandamer family's green and silver shield, which appears throughout the town.
Is Cullerne a real place?
No. Cullerne and its great minster are invented, though Falkner based the church and town on the real English cathedral towns he knew. The book was written in the early twentieth century and set in the Victorian period.
The author
John Meade Falkner
1858–1932 · English novelist and poet
John Meade Falkner (1858–1932) was a British novelist and poet. He was born in Wiltshire, England, and later lived in Durham, where he died. He wrote three novels: The Lost Stradivarius (1895), Moonfleet (1898), and The Nebuly Coat (1903). He also worked for the engineering firm Armstrong Whitworth.
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