The Book

The Antichrist has reached his 11th birthday, and is very much at large, and Crowley and Aziraphale must now also face up to the onset of Armageddon. The Archangel Gabriel, with side-kick Sandalphon, visits Aziraphale at his Soho bookshop for an update on the boy's progress, and demons Hastur and Ligur contact Crowley for the very same. Their respective superiors tell Aziraphale and Crowley that the Four Horsemen have been summoned, as part of the beginning of the end of the world - the first of whom, WAR, disrupts a signing of a peace treaty, in Africa.

In 1656, Agnes Nutter, the author of the rarest and most accurate of prophecy books, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, wreaks revenge on her hostile village - brought to the stake to be burnt, she packs her clothes with explosives and nails, resulting in carnage. 11 years ago, Agnes’s descendant, ten-year-old Anathema Device, is reciting the prophecies by heart, at home in Malibu, while at the same time in Dorking, UK, 12-year-old Newton Pulsifer causes a power failure for the entire street, while attempting to change a plug.

An adult Newt is struggling to find a job that accommodates his problems with electronics - that is until a chance meeting with Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell. Newt joins Shadwell as his assistant, discovering Shadwell’s lifelong, but thus far seemingly futile, mission to rid the world of witches. At Shadwell’s, Newt meets Shadwell's neighbour and unlikely friend, Madame Tracy, part-time medium and part-time courtesan. Anathema arrives in the UK, determined to stop the world from ending, and she moves into Jasmine Cottage, Tadfield.

The Hell Hound has reached its Master - the Antichrist - Adam Young, a charismatic 11-year-old who lives in Lower Tadfield, a small Oxfordshire village. Despite being the son of Satan and the harbinger of the Apocalypse, Adam has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents, and as a result has no idea of his true powers, and the terrifying Hell Hound has been created as a lovable pup. In addition to Dog, he has three close friends, Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian, who collectively are a gang that is called Them by the adults. Anathema runs into Them enjoying the long summer day playing in Hogback Wood. Adam and his gang have spent the day discussing their belief a witch has moved into Jasmine Cottage, and creating their own witch hunt - the British Inquisition.

Determined to locate the real Antichrist, Crowley and Aziraphale head back to Tadfield themselves - to the old convent, site of the baby-swap, only to discover it has now become a conference centre, hosting a corporate team-building, paint balling exercise. Their fruitless visit sends them back on to the road, where they run - literally - into Anathema. Aziraphale heals her broken arm and broken bicycle, and they drive her and her healed bike back into the village. Anathema discovers she has lost Agnes Nutter's book. Crowley and Aziraphale arrive at the Soho bookshop, and the Angel discovers The Book in the back of the car! Aziraphale's studies the book, and realises that the missing Antichrist is Adam Young – in Tadfield!