The Hippopotamus

Ted Wallace, a relic of a bygone era, is a man whose career as a scathing drama critic and minor poet has dissolved into a miasma of alcohol, unpaid alimony, and profound cynicism. Fired from his newspaper and utterly disgusted with a world he feels consistently undervalues his genius, Ted retreats to Swafford Hall, the grand country estate of his old friend, Lord Logan. What he anticipates is a period of self-indulgent repose and free-flowing whisky; what he finds instead is utterly baffling: miracles. Healings, resurrections of small animals, and other inexplicable phenomena are suddenly commonplace, all attributed to Logan's enigmatic teenage godson, David. A self-proclaimed rationalist and a 'mud-caked hippopotamus' of a man, Ted finds himself reluctantly embroiled in investigating these bewildering events, determined to expose the fraud he's convinced lies beneath the surface. Stephen Fry's signature wit, satirical bite, and linguistic brilliance are deployed in full force as Ted navigates a world that suddenly defies all logic, forcing him to confront his own jaded beliefs and the true nature of faith and deception.