Mr Finchley Takes the Road
Listen to a sample
Mr Finchley takes a fancy to a horse-drawn caravan that he sees for sale, but his new wife does not relish the prospect of a caravan journey so she goes to visit her brother, while he sets out to explore the countryside and go house-hunting.
While learning to handle the horse and the caravan, he encounters a variety of eccentrics and country characters, and several unsuitable houses. It gradually emerges that the caravan contains a secret, and Mr Finchley finds himself in real trouble – until his wife comes to the rescue.
This gentle comedy trilogy was a runaway bestseller on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today. It has been dramatized twice for BBC Radio, with the 1990 series regularly repeated.
Book details
- Format
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781788421638
- Published
- 13 June 2019
- Pages
- 368
- Duration
- Dimensions
- 129 x 198 mm
- Genre
- Social Comedy
- Imprint
- Farrago
Reviews
Praise for the Classic Canning Series
‘Quite delightful, with an atmosphere of quiet contentment and humour that cannot fail to charm … The longer we travel with Mr Finchley, the better we come to love him. He makes us share his bread and cheese, and beer and pipe. His delight at the beauties of the countryside and his mild astonishment at the strange ways of men are infectious’
‘His gift of story-telling is obviously innate. Rarely does one come on so satisfying an amalgam of plot, characterisation and good writing’
‘A paean to the beauties of the English countryside and the lovable oddities of the English character… [Mr Finchley] runs into one astonishing situation after another, sticking gamely to his resolve that he must take things as they come and accept them’
‘What counts for most in the story, as it did for Mr Finchley, is his mounting pleasure in vagabondage and the English scene’
‘There is such a gentle humour in the book … Mr Finchley is the ideal Englishman’
