has become the poster child of the modern College of Arms and the ability of people to work their way up. His tabards are bought second hand as are his books. His colleagues know that his busy life is taken up doing as much work as possible. Norroy and Ulster dies of a heart attack when a mob swamps the College of Arms. Major themes In this novel, Brian Killick takes the reader on a journey into the secret inner politics of the herald's college. This is a world that few people have entered, and Killick's interpretation creates some very interesting personalities. The book is well written, though seen as a trifle contrived. In style, The Heralds has a narrative that is not quite sequential and is similar to Heller's Catch-22. This chronological befuddlement, combined with the convention of calling heralds only by their title can be confusing, but also adds to the humour. Killick also makes clear that the apolitical College of Arms has been around for a very long time and is slow to change. The following excerpt comes from chapter nine, in which the heralds resist the installation of a telephone until the very last moment. Even when a telephone is finally brought to the college, the officers of arms refuse to plug it in. -"I give you notice," wrote an officer [of the Society for the Preservation of Rural England], "that I am going to try and telephone you at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. If there is no corresponding telephone at your end, that will not be my fault. My patience is exhausted." -"Telephone and be damned!" bellowed Clarenceux. Allusions/references to other works The plot resembles that of Roy Horniman's novel, Israel Rank (1907), on which the film, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), is based. In the film the anti-hero murders the six people who stand between him and succession to a Dukedom. He is wrongfully tried in the House of Lords for the murder of his mistress' husband, found guilty and sentenced to hang. On execution day a suicide note is 'found' by his mistress and he is reprieved. The high-sounding family name of the Dukedom in Kind Hearts and Coronets is D'Ascoyne and in Israel Rank it is Gascoyne. The plotter's name in The Heralds is Gascoigne. See also Pursuivant Footnotes References College of Arms English novels 1973 British novels British mystery novels Novels