Throughout the performance, you never know whether to trust her or not. Joe and Arline have great chemistry. One caveat, though: neither the cover nor the book's description hints that the book is mostly limited to cemeteries in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It wasn't a problem for me, but is it too much to hope for a continental sequel? Along with the children, Mrs Hammond, the housekeeper of over forty years and resident nurse to Marcus, Anne Franklin are also waiting in the library for news of the will. A Tomb With A View is set in as sinister an old library as one is likely to come across presided over by a portrait of a grim faced, mad eyed old man. There, a dusty, lawyer reads a will (involving some millions of pounds) to an equally sinister family one member of which has were wolf tendencies, another wanders around in a toga of Julius Caesar and a third member is a gentle old lady who plants more than seeds in her flower beds. By the third act, there are more corpses than live members left in the cast and what about the sympathetic nurse and the author of romantic novels are they all, or more than, they seem to be? All is revealed as the plot twists and turns to its surprising conclusion.

A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the people who love them, dazzlingly told.' - Denise Mina Peter Ross, the book's author, encourages us to go beyond the stones and physical attributes of cemeteries because they are like libraries and have stories, which are connected to each person buried there. Early on, he mentions that cemeteries are like parks for introverts, which I love, alongside how cemeteries can become like your favorite beach. As mentioned, Père Lachaise in Paris and Mound Cemetery in Marietta, Ohio are that for me. From this point forward, when I visit a cemetery, I will do even better at noticing everything and do some research on the stories of some of the people buried there because doing so is a way to respect and honor those there by keeping their memory alive. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that we should extend the same respect we have for the dead to the living.Books should not be judged by their cover, but I reserve the right to judge them by how they make me feel. Saddest, I found, are the forgotten graves. Those in York, on a patch of grass between two busy roads which house cholera victims from an outbreak in 1832, or the ‘Navvies’ Graveyard which marks the graves of 37 unnamed Irish workers who died of typhus in 1847 while building the Caledonian Railway. Bringing forth all the characteristics you find in such a large family, their comedy timing, scathing words to each other and at times tender moments really shine through. Lucien, self-proclaimed head of the family and crazy scientist, Emily, who spends her day scowling, and eating… Dora, a fine gardener and home-made wine producer, Marcus, who lives in his alternative world as Julius Caesar, Monica the maneater and Oliver, chained in the cellars due to his wolf like tendencies.

Tomb really takes you on a journey and the combined cast bring each character to life. With no main character, you can really tell through their individual performances that each actor has really thought about their role, and how to portray a very dysfunctional family. Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘… Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book All the ingredients for an oddball thriller are in place with the cast; first a homicidal woman who poisons people and buries them in the garden, a part relished by Brenda Prior. This sets the stage for a hilarious who done it, full of twists and turns and reveals that even Agatha Christie would be proud of.

Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.'- The Observer

A Tomb with a View made me feel anger, grief, and appreciation. It also allowed me to look at the tombstones from a perspective of legacies and remembrance they represent. A comedy whodunnit which features a gathering for the reading of the will of Septimus Tomb, patriarch of a family of oddly assorted and often homicidal characters. Soon the bodies start piling up! Set in a sinister old library, presided over by a portrait of a grim faced, mad eyed old man. A dusty lawyer reads a will, involving some millions of pounds, to an equally sinister family. One member has werewolf tendencies, another wanders around in a toga as Julius Caesar and a third member is a genteel lady who plants more than seeds in her flower beds. Their crazed scientist older brother and their food obsessed sister plus a divine diva, complete the family. By the third act, there are more corpses than live members left in the cast; and what about the sympathetic nurse and the author of romantic novels and her friend, all of whom have the audience guessing. All is revealed as the plot twists and turns to its surprising conclusion. A Tomb With A View has all the ingredients for a spoof murder mystery and Compton Players served it all up with a dose of humour under the imaginative direction from Tracey Pearce. The audience were kept in doubt as to the outcome, right to the end. The result was a hugely enjoyable evening with guns firing, daggers and blood in profusion and among the grisly happenings there were laughs aplenty. A walk through the graveyards of Britain guided by one of the most engaging wordsmiths willing to take you by the hand.' - The Big Issue (*Best Books 2020*) They captured the vision I had of the Tomb family and really brought the whole thing to life. We didn’t have a long time from casting and rehearsal to opening night but they really pulled it off.Cemetry Gates' is my favourite song by by favourite band (the Smiths). As a morose teenager who lived next door to a sprawling Victorian graveyard, the lyrics spoke to me. I would indeed gravely read the ivy-overgrown stones and imagine the lives of those who resided beneath them, creating life stories built around archaic names and centuries-old dates. When I moved to London, naturally I took rooms near to Highgate Cemetery, all the better to swoon over Lizzie Siddal's resting place and follow in the footsteps of crepe-clad mourners. Thanks to Peter Ross's glorious book, I now know that I was - and still am, and forever shall be - a taphophile.

He does the same with Shane MacThomais, who lies in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery, having worked there as a tour guide, sharing his knowledge of and love for the place before taking his own life close to the main gates. Ross brings both MacThomais and Glasnevin to life, delving into his family history and that of the cemetery, artfully interweaving both with tales of Ireland’s wider history. There are touching stories too, a love story of a couple who lived for 80 years and had 12 children and who died within hours of each other; one could not exist without the other. Don’t though, take the impression that this is a gloomy or depressing book. It is quite the contrary. It is very much a celebration of the lives it contains. An appreciation of lives lived and of the stories within them and a tribute to those whose business is dealing with the dead. All of these sorrowful mysteries – and many more – are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.

22nd- 25th April 2015

After Covid forced a last minute reschedule of their previous play, Spirit Level, from January to August, St Nics had only seven weeks to cast and rehearse this ‘monster’ of a play by Norman Robbins.