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Ben the Tramp #1
No. 17
The first book featuring Ben, the lovable, humorous ex-sailor and down-at-heels rascal who can’t help running into trouble.
Ben is back home from the Merchant Navy, penniless as usual and looking for digs in fog-bound London. Taking shelter in an abandoned old house, he stumbles across a dead body – and scarpers. Running into a detective, Gilbert Fordyce, the reluctant Ben is persuaded to return to the house and investigate the mystery of the corpse – which promptly disappears! The vacant No.17 is the rendezvous for a gang of villains, and the cowardly Ben finds himself in the thick of thieves with no way of escape.
Ben’s first adventure, No.17, began life in the 1920s as an internationally successful stage play and was immortalised on film by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. Its author, J. Jefferson Farjeon, wrote more than 60 crime thrillers, eight featuring Ben the tramp, his most popular character.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
21 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
J. Jefferson Farjeon
89 books92 followersJoseph Jefferson Farjeon was always going to be a writer as, born in London, he was the son of Benjamin Leopold Farjeon who at the time was a well-known novelist whose other children were Eleanor Farjeon, who became a children's writer, and Herbert Farjeon, who became a playwright and who wrote the well-respected 'A Cricket Bag'.
The family were descended from Thomas Jefferson but it was his maternal grandfather, the American actor Joseph Jefferson, after whom Joseph was named. He was educated privately and at Peterborough Lodge and one of his early jobs, from 1910 to 1920, was doing some editorial work for the Amalgamated Press.
His first published work was in 1924 when Brentano's produced 'The Master Criminal', which is a tale of identity reversal involving two brothers, one a master detective, the other a master criminal. A New York Times reviewer commented favourably, "Mr. Farjeon displays a great deal of knowledge about story-telling and multiplies the interest of his plot through a terse, telling style and a rigid compression." This was the beginning of a career that would encompass over 80 published novels, ending with 'The Caravan Adventure' in 1955.
He also wrote a number of plays, some of which were filmed, most notably Number Seventeen which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock in 1932, and many short stories.
Many of his novels were in the mystery and detective genre although he was recognised as being one of the first novelists to entwine romance with crime. In addition he was known for his keen humour and flashing wit but he also used sinister and terrifying storylines quite freely. One critic for the Saturday Review of Literature reviewed one of his later books writing that it was "amusing, satirical, and [a] frequently hair-raising yarn of an author who got dangerously mixed up with his imaginary characters. Tricky."
When he died at Hove in Sussex in 1955 his obituary in The Times wrote of his "deserved popularity for ingenious and entertaining plots and characterization".
Gerry Wolstenholme
June 2010
The family were descended from Thomas Jefferson but it was his maternal grandfather, the American actor Joseph Jefferson, after whom Joseph was named. He was educated privately and at Peterborough Lodge and one of his early jobs, from 1910 to 1920, was doing some editorial work for the Amalgamated Press.
His first published work was in 1924 when Brentano's produced 'The Master Criminal', which is a tale of identity reversal involving two brothers, one a master detective, the other a master criminal. A New York Times reviewer commented favourably, "Mr. Farjeon displays a great deal of knowledge about story-telling and multiplies the interest of his plot through a terse, telling style and a rigid compression." This was the beginning of a career that would encompass over 80 published novels, ending with 'The Caravan Adventure' in 1955.
He also wrote a number of plays, some of which were filmed, most notably Number Seventeen which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock in 1932, and many short stories.
Many of his novels were in the mystery and detective genre although he was recognised as being one of the first novelists to entwine romance with crime. In addition he was known for his keen humour and flashing wit but he also used sinister and terrifying storylines quite freely. One critic for the Saturday Review of Literature reviewed one of his later books writing that it was "amusing, satirical, and [a] frequently hair-raising yarn of an author who got dangerously mixed up with his imaginary characters. Tricky."
When he died at Hove in Sussex in 1955 his obituary in The Times wrote of his "deserved popularity for ingenious and entertaining plots and characterization".
Gerry Wolstenholme
June 2010
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 14, 2023
I read — and adored — three stand-alone mysteries by J. Jefferson Farjeon in less than a week’s time: Mystery in White, The Z Murders, and Thirteen Guests. So when I found out that Jefferson Farjeon had a series featuring a down-and-out merchant seamen named Ben, I couldn’t wait to read it.
But No. 17, the first novel in an eight-book series, simply doesn’t hold up as well. Mystery in White, The Z Murders, and Thirteen Guests were also released in the 1930s, but they exude that Golden Age charm. In contrast, No. 17 reads like the worst sort of 19th century melodrama rather than a classic 1930s cozy. Add to that the character of Ben of the Merchant Service (as he always introduces himself), a cowardly dolt with a penny-ante criminal bent. Ben says of himself that he “ain’t no bloomin’ ’ero.” Well, lots of characters aren’t heroic — just think George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman or Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Charles Mortdecai — but they’re amusing and interesting. In contrast, Ben’s just a two-dimensional character included for laughs who will never be Falstaff, much less Bertie Wooster. Won’t be along for the other seven books.
But No. 17, the first novel in an eight-book series, simply doesn’t hold up as well. Mystery in White, The Z Murders, and Thirteen Guests were also released in the 1930s, but they exude that Golden Age charm. In contrast, No. 17 reads like the worst sort of 19th century melodrama rather than a classic 1930s cozy. Add to that the character of Ben of the Merchant Service (as he always introduces himself), a cowardly dolt with a penny-ante criminal bent. Ben says of himself that he “ain’t no bloomin’ ’ero.” Well, lots of characters aren’t heroic — just think George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman or Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Charles Mortdecai — but they’re amusing and interesting. In contrast, Ben’s just a two-dimensional character included for laughs who will never be Falstaff, much less Bertie Wooster. Won’t be along for the other seven books.
November 4, 2018
Once more the inmates of the room missed something through lacking eyes in the backs of their heads. The passage door slowly and softly opened, and a figure crouched in the aperture. A big, broad-shouldered figure, with one shoulder higher than the other.
‘Now, then, don’t pretend you don’t know anything about these diamonds,’ rasped Brant. ‘The telegram mentioned them—’
‘Oh, what’s the use?’ muttered Henry.
Oh, what's the use indeed. This one was pretty bad, but it was made even worse by knowing that Farjeon was actually a terrific writer as evidenced by his other books Mystery in White and Thirteen Guests.
This book, however, ... If the convoluted plot about a jewel robbery hadn't been enough to make my eyes roll, then the really insipid conversations between the characters which seemed to consist mostly of catch-phrases and idioms but no clearly articulated trains of thought, would have been enough to make me reach for the wine.
And of course, we also have the main character, Ben the Tramp, the former merchant seaman, to whom I just couldn't warm up to. There is nothing I could see that makes him out as rounded character - he seems to remain a caricature throughout the book.
This is one 1930s mystery series that I am going to give a miss.
‘Now, then, don’t pretend you don’t know anything about these diamonds,’ rasped Brant. ‘The telegram mentioned them—’
‘Oh, what’s the use?’ muttered Henry.
Oh, what's the use indeed. This one was pretty bad, but it was made even worse by knowing that Farjeon was actually a terrific writer as evidenced by his other books Mystery in White and Thirteen Guests.
This book, however, ... If the convoluted plot about a jewel robbery hadn't been enough to make my eyes roll, then the really insipid conversations between the characters which seemed to consist mostly of catch-phrases and idioms but no clearly articulated trains of thought, would have been enough to make me reach for the wine.
And of course, we also have the main character, Ben the Tramp, the former merchant seaman, to whom I just couldn't warm up to. There is nothing I could see that makes him out as rounded character - he seems to remain a caricature throughout the book.
This is one 1930s mystery series that I am going to give a miss.
January 1, 2018
This may not be literature, but as rollicking adventures go, it's a great way to start the year! Not a mystery in the traditional sense of whodunit and how and why, but who's who, what's what, and what's going on here, anyway? There are more twists in the tale than a corkscrew, and though the characters are a bit cardboard, if you like your adventure tales with a touch of the Sexton Blakes, you can't go wrong here. It all takes place in less than 48 hours! Locked rooms, empty houses that aren't so very empty, pretty girls, jewels and warmhearted Cockneys are a classic 1920s blend that kept me reading and chuckling.
September 16, 2022
A detective who’s a tramp – not a toff slumming it or a Sherlock Holmes in disguise but a real, live tramp! This unusual character features in a series of funny and well-written novels, crammed with international gangs, pickpockets, mysterious strangers, women who aren’t as good as they should be, stowaways, drunks and general ne’er-do-wells. One of the best features of the books is the atmospheric settings. Ben’s adventures take place in cellars, a London enveloped in dense fog, the coal hole on a ship, a hut on a Spanish mountain. Very enjoyable Golden Age fiction. (I also read Murderer’s Trail, Ben on the Job, and Ben Sees it Through.)
July 21, 2021
Unusual to have the leading character in a detective 🕵️♀️ story that makes you laugh but Ben does and I am going to read some more concerning him.
Read
July 24, 2023Sadly, I'm going to have to DNF this book. I just can't get on with Ben's dialect at all and I'm finding myself reading the same page over and over.
November 18, 2018
This was interesting as a time capsule, particularly in terms of language and manners. For a newly literate population I can understand how this would have been be suspenseful, particularly given TV and Radio were not established or affordable for the general population. It does struggle to stand the test of time and feels more like a farce from the stage than the sort of thriller we would see today. The plotting is poor as is the pace. Nicely repackaged and a short read, so not an absolute pain, but it is difficult to stay engaged at times with a format that respects social standings of the time and lacks the dirty reality we know to be part of the grubby underbelly of London throughout its history.
August 2, 2017
It wasn't awful, but it isn't great and it hasn't aged well. I wasn't a fan of the lead character Ben, either as a mystery lead or as a character in general: he is to men of the road what Dick van Dyke's Bert is to chimney sweeps. The mystery itself isn't very strong either, although the denouement is better that some of the earlier parts.
I've enjoyed several of Farjeon's other novels, and I'll read more of them, but I won't be revisiting the Ben the Tramp series.
I've enjoyed several of Farjeon's other novels, and I'll read more of them, but I won't be revisiting the Ben the Tramp series.
November 27, 2016
Ben is an interesting character a down out who keeps bumping into the number 17 in various forms. The story is set mostly in a derelict house and concerns stolen jewels and trying to figure out who is who. I am not sure it works as a novel but can see why it was a popular comical play in the 1930s.
July 22, 2020
This review is of the 2016 paperback edition of this 1926 novel, which was first produced as a play.
Major characters:
Ben the Tramp
Gilbert Fordyce
Eddie Scott, Fordyce’s friend
Rose Ackroyd, the girl next door
Smith, the man with the crooked shoulder
(the elder) Brant, a house-hunter
Henry Brant, his nephew
Nora Brant, his niece
Locale: London
Synopsis: Ben, out of work Merchant seaman, is destitute. Groping his way through the London fog, he finds a house - No. 17 - with the door ajar. Finding no one apparently inside, he takes shelter in an upstairs room for the night. Next, a man with a crooked shoulder enters the house. Ben, frightened, runs out to the sidewalk and into Gilbert Fordyce, who takes interest in the house and goes inside with Ben. In the upstairs room they find a corpse - the man with the crooked shoulder - and a long cupboard. Someone then enters through the skylight, and they grab the intruder to find it is a girl - Rose Ackroyd - who lives next door, and was searching for her father who went out and did not return.
Ben retrieves a gun from the corpse. The next visitors to the house are elder Mr. Brant, his nephew Henry, and niece Nora. They pose as house-hunters while Fordyce poses as a sales agent, and tries to get rid of them unsuccessfully. Ben and Fordyce and afraid Rose and the Brants will find the corpse, but when they look again, it is gone.
Review: This is the first of the Ben the Tramp novels, and employs the Farjeon formula: ‘man goes for a walk, finds a corpse and a girl’.
Creepiness abounds in the fog and dark house. The trips up and and down the stairs are excruciatingly drawn-out and slow. Ben’s words are sometimes hard to understand in print as his dialect is rendered phonetically, and sounding them out is needed to reveal them ... 'berlud' folled me a while until I caught on ... blood.
The story's genesis as a play is obvious - all the action takes place in one room or in the street, and as the plot progresses, the characters have many changes of identity in the usual "Now *I* have the gun and I will tie *YOU* up" sort of exchanges. The roles get hopelessly tangled and confused. Don't try to follow too attentively, just ride the roller coaster.
This story was also made into a 1932 film, Number Seventeen, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which follows the book closely and has had good reviews as well. It is a standard item on Hitchcock collection DVDs.
Major characters:
Ben the Tramp
Gilbert Fordyce
Eddie Scott, Fordyce’s friend
Rose Ackroyd, the girl next door
Smith, the man with the crooked shoulder
(the elder) Brant, a house-hunter
Henry Brant, his nephew
Nora Brant, his niece
Locale: London
Synopsis: Ben, out of work Merchant seaman, is destitute. Groping his way through the London fog, he finds a house - No. 17 - with the door ajar. Finding no one apparently inside, he takes shelter in an upstairs room for the night. Next, a man with a crooked shoulder enters the house. Ben, frightened, runs out to the sidewalk and into Gilbert Fordyce, who takes interest in the house and goes inside with Ben. In the upstairs room they find a corpse - the man with the crooked shoulder - and a long cupboard. Someone then enters through the skylight, and they grab the intruder to find it is a girl - Rose Ackroyd - who lives next door, and was searching for her father who went out and did not return.
Ben retrieves a gun from the corpse. The next visitors to the house are elder Mr. Brant, his nephew Henry, and niece Nora. They pose as house-hunters while Fordyce poses as a sales agent, and tries to get rid of them unsuccessfully. Ben and Fordyce and afraid Rose and the Brants will find the corpse, but when they look again, it is gone.
Review: This is the first of the Ben the Tramp novels, and employs the Farjeon formula: ‘man goes for a walk, finds a corpse and a girl’.
Creepiness abounds in the fog and dark house. The trips up and and down the stairs are excruciatingly drawn-out and slow. Ben’s words are sometimes hard to understand in print as his dialect is rendered phonetically, and sounding them out is needed to reveal them ... 'berlud' folled me a while until I caught on ... blood.
The story's genesis as a play is obvious - all the action takes place in one room or in the street, and as the plot progresses, the characters have many changes of identity in the usual "Now *I* have the gun and I will tie *YOU* up" sort of exchanges. The roles get hopelessly tangled and confused. Don't try to follow too attentively, just ride the roller coaster.
This story was also made into a 1932 film, Number Seventeen, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which follows the book closely and has had good reviews as well. It is a standard item on Hitchcock collection DVDs.
March 27, 2024
This was an enjoyable read. It does have a lot of cockney dialect to get used to, but is really quite a fast moving story, with no end of twists and turns.
It starts with Ben making his way back to London, having served his time in the merchant navy. He is almost penniless, and looking for somewhere he could get fed. As he nears London, he runs into one of London's famous fogs. Someone he literally walks into tells him there is an inn farther along the road and so he heads for that. The barmaid says she will feed him but someone is in the room where food is fed and she is frightened to disturb the man there. The man suddenly flees the room so the barmaid asks Ben to look in the room. Ben sees the room empty, but he sees a frightening face at the window. Ben quickly leaves the inn and continues his journey. He finds an empty house and this is where the story really becomes quite complicated.
The author does build the atmosphere inside the empty house well, with sounds and an awful lot of rooms and passages, and eventually a number of people, most of whom are not the people they claim to be. I will continue with this series as Ben has definitely become a character I like, also hoping that some other of the characters appear again.
It starts with Ben making his way back to London, having served his time in the merchant navy. He is almost penniless, and looking for somewhere he could get fed. As he nears London, he runs into one of London's famous fogs. Someone he literally walks into tells him there is an inn farther along the road and so he heads for that. The barmaid says she will feed him but someone is in the room where food is fed and she is frightened to disturb the man there. The man suddenly flees the room so the barmaid asks Ben to look in the room. Ben sees the room empty, but he sees a frightening face at the window. Ben quickly leaves the inn and continues his journey. He finds an empty house and this is where the story really becomes quite complicated.
The author does build the atmosphere inside the empty house well, with sounds and an awful lot of rooms and passages, and eventually a number of people, most of whom are not the people they claim to be. I will continue with this series as Ben has definitely become a character I like, also hoping that some other of the characters appear again.
February 4, 2025
I stumbled on this pretty randomly...academia.edu sends me random essays that I am sometimes compelled to open...I never actually read them, but I do sometimes look at the works cited pages...anyway, this one essay had like a million books by J. Jefferson Farjeon listed, and I had never even heard of them...
I like to go in cold, but I think that was a mistake in this case. I'm still not sure what we're supposed to make of "Ben the Tramp"...like, he's the main character, and he's in all the other books, but he spends most of the book being berated by various people, including the hero...? I guess there's something sort of funny about having a central character whose main traits are hunger and cowardice, but I wanted him to prove himself in a more obvious way
I can't say I cared about the mystery itself (after all--the ten commandments say there has to be an (actual!) body!), and I found a lot of it washing over me, but in the end, I did find myself kind of charmed by the fact that basically everyone was really someone else, and were all double- and triple-bluffing...
Still, I don't know if I'll dip too deeply into the rest of the series...
I like to go in cold, but I think that was a mistake in this case. I'm still not sure what we're supposed to make of "Ben the Tramp"...like, he's the main character, and he's in all the other books, but he spends most of the book being berated by various people, including the hero...? I guess there's something sort of funny about having a central character whose main traits are hunger and cowardice, but I wanted him to prove himself in a more obvious way
I can't say I cared about the mystery itself (after all--the ten commandments say there has to be an (actual!) body!), and I found a lot of it washing over me, but in the end, I did find myself kind of charmed by the fact that basically everyone was really someone else, and were all double- and triple-bluffing...
Still, I don't know if I'll dip too deeply into the rest of the series...
September 18, 2021
I'm seeing a lot of hate directed towards this one but I loved it. A very different beast to the likes of MYSTERY IN WHITE and the stand-alone stories that Farjeon was known for. The reason is that this is the novelisation of Farjeon's successful play so the single location makes a lot more sense when you realise that. Hitchcock also did a film adaptation a few years later. This one's a broad comedy mystery in which Farjeon's recurring character of Ben the tramp takes refuge in a seemingly abandoned house before encountering various odd characters and a minor criminal conspiracy. Dialogue-focused throughout, some of it in Cockney dialect, this focuses on the comedy so it's very much of the era, but I found it as delightful as Wodehouse. The twists and surprises keep coming and sustain this short read to the very end. I'll be checking out the rest of the series too on the strength of this one.
April 8, 2021
It's 1929 and former Merchant seaman Ben in down on his luck and homeless. The thick fog as engulfed the streets of London and Ben needs to somewhere to stay. By chance he finds No.17 open and unoccupied and decides to make the most of it. While making his meal he hears a thump upside and after investigating it turns out to be a dead body. Ben is baffled as there are only two ways out and both needed to pass by him. Things become worse when toff Gilbert Fordyce arrives at the house leaving Ben in big trouble. However things in the house make life the pair complicated and this unlikely duo join together to solve the mystery. J. Jefferson Farjeon has written a well crafted thriller which twists turns throughout until on final twist which surprises everyone. Highly recommended if you are looking for something slightly different in the Golden Age of Mystery genre.
December 19, 2021
More like 3 & 1/2 stars. This was a fascinating little mystery from an author who was apparently quite prolific in his day, but is largely unknown today. I never heard of him before finding this book while on vacation.
It's a well told mystery set in London between the world wars. Our protagonist is a don-on-his-heels former Merchant Service seaman named Ben who gets involved with a appearing-disappearing-reappearing corpse.
My only problem is that Ben is a cockney, and the author has chosen to transliterate his cockney accent, which can get confusing at times. But on the whole this was very enjoyable, more so for it coming from an author previously unknown to me.
It's a well told mystery set in London between the world wars. Our protagonist is a don-on-his-heels former Merchant Service seaman named Ben who gets involved with a appearing-disappearing-reappearing corpse.
My only problem is that Ben is a cockney, and the author has chosen to transliterate his cockney accent, which can get confusing at times. But on the whole this was very enjoyable, more so for it coming from an author previously unknown to me.
March 6, 2024
J. Jefferson Farjeon wrote his first play, and it was a hit. A year later he turned it into a novel, then six years later, Alfred Hitchcock filmed it. As I read the misadventures of Ben and all the other suspicious characters who came in and out of strange vacant house #17 in the pea soup London fog, I could see the scenes of the play. Even though some of the characters were threatening and definitely up to no good, Ben's antics and misunderstandings lightened things, and Fordyce's cool head prevailed. For me, it was off to a slow start, but it got rolling and there were so many twists and turns right to the very end that it kept me (and the actors) guessing.
December 30, 2017
The first 2/3 of this book was too slow and boring to merit my giving this a higher rating—even though the last 1/3 saved the story and brought about some twists.
The great audiobook narrator really saved this for me and made it bearable at the beginning.
I’m not sure if I’ll venture to read any more “Ben the tramp” stories after this book made me suffer so much at the beginning. Only time will tell if I choose to pick up another.
The great audiobook narrator really saved this for me and made it bearable at the beginning.
I’m not sure if I’ll venture to read any more “Ben the tramp” stories after this book made me suffer so much at the beginning. Only time will tell if I choose to pick up another.
February 3, 2023
[Penguin Books Ltd] (1939). SB/DJ. 248 Pages. Purchased from ‘The Penguin Chap’.
A scarce wartime reprint of the 1926 First Edition.
The opener in the series of eight Detective Ben titles, which culminated with “Number Nineteen” in 1952.
Starts brightly enough but soon tails away to tedious nonsense.
Not the author’s finest work by any means.
Written in a clumsy, simplistic style: “…a hasty step was heard ascending the stairs, and she closed her bag hastily…”
A scarce wartime reprint of the 1926 First Edition.
The opener in the series of eight Detective Ben titles, which culminated with “Number Nineteen” in 1952.
Starts brightly enough but soon tails away to tedious nonsense.
Not the author’s finest work by any means.
Written in a clumsy, simplistic style: “…a hasty step was heard ascending the stairs, and she closed her bag hastily…”
September 2, 2025
A bit difficult to score this one and I’d probably give it 3.5. I usually enjoy Farjeon’s work a lot more but the tendency to write phonetically Ben’s dialogue is a bit distracting. On the other hand the descriptions of London in the pea-souper is so very evocative and there’s enough humour and simple fun to make it a good, quick read.
July 2, 2022
I didn't get very far. The main character's dialect was difficult to navigate. I had to read his dialog several times and even then had to scratch my head. I want to enjoy a book, not have to slog thru it.
June 12, 2025
This book which eventually went on to become an Alfred Hitchcock movie is quite interesting. TBH I had no idea that the fog in London was once as bad as it is described in this humorous (peculiar) mystery.
December 14, 2017
Entertaining but I found the dialect hard to decypher at times.
December 24, 2017
A little cliched, not as good as Mystery in White by the same author.
Read
October 17, 2021Daft. A daft book.
August 24, 2022
I really did not like the writing style in this book. The ending could have been interesting if I had cared about the characters but the writing really ruined everything for me.
July 3, 2024
Really enjoyed this. Short read. English noir pulp fiction circa 1930, with one of the main characters reminding me of Curly from The Three Stooges. Strongly recommend.
July 3, 2024
Quite good. It was a bit hard to read Ben's dialect but he was a fun character so it was worth it.
August 2, 2025
I want more of these! Funny and a solid mystery.
January 4, 2026
I remember this as being really funny and I liked the antithesis of the upper class, well educated knows everything detective in Ben, the lower class, bumbling, know nothing stumbler upon clues.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews