Tales of Hartwell House is a yet-to-be published commercial fiction collection of eighteen interconnected plot-driven episodes centered on the eclectic family and staff of Hartwell House ^TM, a rural Virginia estate during the mid-twentieth century (111,000 words).

At the heart of the collection are Jeremiah (“Jerry”) Abbott Hartwell, the proprietor of the estate, and James Biddlecomb the highly competent butler, chauffeur, golf caddie, and confident. Their relationship echoes the classic Jeeves‑and‑Wooster dynamic: Jerry’s good‑natured impulsiveness balanced by James’s calm intelligence and quiet mastery of resolving crises.

The stories are suitable for adaptation as a television series, with their ensemble cast, episodic structure, uplifting tone, and warm portrayal of rural America.

Like P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie & Jeeves stories, Tales of Hartwell House offers delightful episodes with unexpected satisfying endings. Most stories have James cleverly resolving domestic matters such as a wayward nephew or a widow with marriage designs on Jerry, or more serious crises such as:

• missing securities
• a romance scam

• legal scheming to take a family's farm
• the potential exposure of a family secret
• discovery of a infant's grave in a neglected rose garden

Unlike Wodehouse's first-person narration, these stories are told predominately in a warm, third-person objective voice.

Bachelor Jeremiah Abbott Hartwell resides near the Town of Berkeley, Virginia, at Hartwell House, a former grand mansion staffed by:

• James Biddlecomb, unflappable butler, chauffeur, golf caddie, and vegetable gardener

• Minerva Overton, the forgetful, cantankerous, and prying housekeeper.

• Cornelia Sadler, the bright, dependable cook.

Jerry is often found at the Oakwood Room bar of the Hackberry Hills Country Club.

He is joined by niece Lavinia Masen Graydon, newly wed to Tolliver Graydon, a traveling salesman for a wholesale men's and women's ready-to-wear merchant with offices in Richmond and D.C...

As described in Chapter 1:

Three gray stone chimneys watched over Hartwell House, a three-story white frame farmhouse with front and rear airy verandas and a red tin roof. One chimney gripped an ancient, vigilant weathervane in the shape of a rooster that creaked a warning with shifts in the wind.

Beyond the house, the abandoned tobacco curing barn, stables, and corn crib were wrinkled and stooped, their doors sagging like yawning mouths and their windows staring with vacant eyes.

The proud old carriage house now sheltered a maroon-colored '48 Packard, while the spirited henhouse bustled with life, producing eggs for the kitchen.

The scenes in Hartwell House take place on the first level of the three-story manse, depicted here. The upper floors are partitioned between owner’s suites and staff. But for a single attic scene they remain behind the curtains.

The lead actors are the parlor, library, and dining room. The kitchen, where the staff takes their meals, is reduced to a supporting role. It contains a stove, refrigerator, and washing machine. No dryer need apply as the clothes line is sufficient.

The telephone in the front hall and the beverage carts in the parlor and library play their small parts with gusto.

Carolina Avenue in the nearby fictional Town of Berkeley, Virginia, is the locale of various scenes:

These are the stories and the thumbnail subject of each: