The Chronicles of Much Hemlock The Chronicles are set in a fictitious village in the Cotswolds. The idea was first raised at a meeting on 19 November 2001 when members discussed that scriptwriters of soap operas seemed to take it in turns to write the scripts. 'Did each writer deliberately set up situations,' we wondered, 'from which the next writer would have to extricate the characters?' Members were invited to contribute one character each to populate the village and a cast list of about 20 was produced. The Chronicles of Much Hemlock began with the first episode, The Vicar's Pyjamas, written by Barbara Smith and read out at a Circle meeting on 11 February 2002. The soap opera received its first mention in the Reading Evening Post on 22 November 2002. Two volumes of the chronicles have been published so far.