The Neverquarians

Clockwork charioteers, whey, a tin planet, a star-faring balloon, a mysterious Mansion, a Society of eccentric inventors, the charcoal-powered television, the Light Blob, the underground rivers of London, lepers, maleficent policemen, the Shibboleth Halyard Mugmoss, disguises, murder, chess, golf, Blumpfruit, the ruins on the Moon, the true names of the planets, Gunderthrags, interplanetary philology, an alien alphabet, eighteenth-century table manners, the corpse of George Washington, a time-machine made of pottery, and the intertwining stories of Charaz Modalpha of Tramazoplatz, Phlogiston and Mr. Chumbert Cholmodeley of Tisbury Court, London.