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The Good Companions
Book by J.B. Priestley, David Joy, Lee Hanson
605 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1929
99 people are currently reading
2454 people want to read
About the author
J.B. Priestley
470 books293 followersJohn Boynton Priestley was an English writer. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France - in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months; then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
November 23, 2009
I found a 1986 copy of The Good Companions tucked in the "sad, abandoned books" closet in the common room of our dormitory. I was desperate for a novel that wouldn't depress me--for some reason, the books I grabbed on my way up to Boston were all intelligently and academically unhappy, a little rubbing and joyless, or otherwise just unsettling. This story filled a literary need I didn't know I had. Brilliant characterization, brilliant storytelling, characters developed quickly, deftly, danced across the page and then cut loose at exactly the right time. I adored reading it. It was brilliant. I don't know if I'd recommend it to other people--it's possible it just hit what I needed, personally, at one specific moment--but this impulse find is now one of my favorite novels of all time.
July 12, 2024
If they’d asked me for a one word blurb for this back in 1929 I would have said :
"Putdownable!"
If they had asked me today I would have offered :
"Unpickupable!"
It’s a shame – I loved J B Priestly’s next novel Angel Pavement, written only a year after this one. But there’s a relentless sunniness and a ghastly fixed-grin quality about The Good Companions that you often see on the faces of ventriloquist’s dummies. Curmudgeon that I am, this began to wear me down.
JB Priestley took a very leisurely time (260 pages) to introduce me to three characters and get them by various improbable means to all meet up in a cheap & cheerful gaff in a town no one’s heard of. There’s a concert party troupe there (comedians, singers, soft shoe shufflers), all staring glumly into their pallid teacups. They’ve just been stranded out in the cold but still they wouldn't trade it for a sack of gold – yes, left high and dry by their rascally manager who scarpered with the money. But wait! Help is at hand in the form of Miss Brant! Because…
Well it’s all too tiresome. And you've kind of heard it all before. Stretching out before me was the prospect of 400 more pages of show people who smile when they are low, accompanied by a crowd of goodly hearted English jolly working people who perpetrate English stereotypes at the drop of a bowler. So I thought let’s not go on with the show. Not this one anyway.
"Putdownable!"
If they had asked me today I would have offered :
"Unpickupable!"
It’s a shame – I loved J B Priestly’s next novel Angel Pavement, written only a year after this one. But there’s a relentless sunniness and a ghastly fixed-grin quality about The Good Companions that you often see on the faces of ventriloquist’s dummies. Curmudgeon that I am, this began to wear me down.
JB Priestley took a very leisurely time (260 pages) to introduce me to three characters and get them by various improbable means to all meet up in a cheap & cheerful gaff in a town no one’s heard of. There’s a concert party troupe there (comedians, singers, soft shoe shufflers), all staring glumly into their pallid teacups. They’ve just been stranded out in the cold but still they wouldn't trade it for a sack of gold – yes, left high and dry by their rascally manager who scarpered with the money. But wait! Help is at hand in the form of Miss Brant! Because…
Well it’s all too tiresome. And you've kind of heard it all before. Stretching out before me was the prospect of 400 more pages of show people who smile when they are low, accompanied by a crowd of goodly hearted English jolly working people who perpetrate English stereotypes at the drop of a bowler. So I thought let’s not go on with the show. Not this one anyway.
April 8, 2025
This book has been a good companion to me over the last two months. I'm no longer used to reading such long novels in a single stretch, and so took a week on, week off approach, fitting shorter books into the off weeks. It may have been better for that, there is a hint of serial production about it. Priestley was a big Dickens fan, and there is a distinctly Dickensian cast to this. There is the attempt to bring in the full scope of English society, from landed gentry (Miss Trant), via prep school teacher (Inigo Jollifant) to industrial labourer (Jess Oakroyd) with all points between, below and above. The novel is picaresque in it's presentation of series of episodes connected only by the passing of time. But the focus on three main characters, Trant, Jollifant, and Oakroyd is something of an innovation for me. This triumvirate share something in common, none of them are actually interested in the stage as a career, and stumble upon it by accident. The plots in which they are caught up are driven by the socio-economic strivings of the minor theatrical types around them.
What is most surprising about The Good Companions is its lightness of tone. Earlier this year I read Priestley's English Journey which, written five years later, covers much of the geographic ground the Companions go over. The impact of industrial depression of the early thirties was obvious enough to knock Priestley out of his complacency, and the descriptions of industrial towns in the later book are almost apocalyptic. Last year I read Lost Empires which is set in the same milieu as the Companions, the lowest level of the repertory stage. Lost Empires was disturbing in its presentation of the sexual abuse and even sexual violence that was part of that milieu. There is nothing new about characters like Harvey Weinstein. Reading Priestley in the midst of the Me Too movement, this doesn' t surprise us, but it casts a shadow over Priestley's presentation in the Companions. Did he see the theatrical world of the 1930s as far more wholesome than the one he had participated in in the 1910s, or was he saving the public from some of the bitterness of his experience in 1929 only to reveal it in 1965. What had happened in between, the Lady Chatterley case? Perhaps it is simply his perception of what public taste will tolerate. Dickens himself struggled with this, and you have to read him closely to pick up the sexual realities he wrote about.
Finally, I read this from my grandfather's first edition. The dust jacket is lost, the covers have suffered water damage, but each page was thumbed over by my grandfather, ninety-two years earlier. That added to my enjoyment of reading this. At the end of the book, he wrote "12.29": I can't tell now whether he meant December, 1929 or the 29th of December. I used to do likewise when I finished a book, but it's something Goodreads does for me nowadays. The servers have to stay up, or my grandchilden will miss out. I'm not optimistic.
What is most surprising about The Good Companions is its lightness of tone. Earlier this year I read Priestley's English Journey which, written five years later, covers much of the geographic ground the Companions go over. The impact of industrial depression of the early thirties was obvious enough to knock Priestley out of his complacency, and the descriptions of industrial towns in the later book are almost apocalyptic. Last year I read Lost Empires which is set in the same milieu as the Companions, the lowest level of the repertory stage. Lost Empires was disturbing in its presentation of the sexual abuse and even sexual violence that was part of that milieu. There is nothing new about characters like Harvey Weinstein. Reading Priestley in the midst of the Me Too movement, this doesn' t surprise us, but it casts a shadow over Priestley's presentation in the Companions. Did he see the theatrical world of the 1930s as far more wholesome than the one he had participated in in the 1910s, or was he saving the public from some of the bitterness of his experience in 1929 only to reveal it in 1965. What had happened in between, the Lady Chatterley case? Perhaps it is simply his perception of what public taste will tolerate. Dickens himself struggled with this, and you have to read him closely to pick up the sexual realities he wrote about.
Finally, I read this from my grandfather's first edition. The dust jacket is lost, the covers have suffered water damage, but each page was thumbed over by my grandfather, ninety-two years earlier. That added to my enjoyment of reading this. At the end of the book, he wrote "12.29": I can't tell now whether he meant December, 1929 or the 29th of December. I used to do likewise when I finished a book, but it's something Goodreads does for me nowadays. The servers have to stay up, or my grandchilden will miss out. I'm not optimistic.
January 12, 2020
A slightly dated charmer featuring an oddball group of travelling theatrical types in 1920s England, that I'm really surprised I never heard of before my goodreads friend Kathy brought it to my attention. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm not sure if I should say despite or because of its being so very long. I felt completely immersed in the travels of these people, it was often funny, and many of the characterizations delicious. For some reason though, I was quite happy to read just a bit at a time, so this 600 page door-stopper took forever to get through, and I'm already behind on my quite modest 2020 goodreads challenge.
July 26, 2016
If you're thinking about reading this wonderful novel, you've got to be prepared for an extremely long period piece (written immediately after World War I)that's a little slow getting started, that's about the lives of Britain's long-forgotten music-hall troupes, and that's devoid of any really sensational plot developments. If that doesn't stop you, GET THIS BOOK.
It's one of my best reads of 2013 and maybe 2012, as well. Priestley introduces us to three discontented people -- a lonely unmarried woman who's just sold all the furnishings in the family home and moved into a cottage, a discontented factory laborer in the North, and a well-born, underemployed music teacher in the worst (and funniest) fictional school since Dotheboys Hall in Dickens' MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. Well, maybe the university in Kingsley Amis' LUCKY JIM should be on the list, too, but that's about it.
One by one, the members of this mismatched trio leave their unsatisfying lives behind and take to the road. Inevitably, their lives intersect. Extremely evitably, if there is such a word, they all wind up involved in trying to resuscitate a failing variety troupe that's working the rag-end of British vaudeville in its final, melancholy days. It's show business, but just barely.
Among Priestley's many gifts are indelible characterization, a powerful sense of place, a fine, understated sense of humor, and the ability to write stories without villains. Adversity itself is villain enough in this world. The book reminds me of Dickens in both its humor and its theatricality but that's not to take away from Priestley's individuality. THE GOOD COMPANIONS was a sensational best-seller in its day, it's been the basis of several stage plays and half a dozen movies (Judi Dench, who starred in one of the films, provides an introduction to this excellent Kindle edition) and Priestley spent the rest of his life trying to write something that would make people stop thinking of him as the author of THE GOOD COMPANIONS. He got quite sticky about it and probably wound up regretting having written it.
Just in case I haven't made myself clear, I love this book.
It's one of my best reads of 2013 and maybe 2012, as well. Priestley introduces us to three discontented people -- a lonely unmarried woman who's just sold all the furnishings in the family home and moved into a cottage, a discontented factory laborer in the North, and a well-born, underemployed music teacher in the worst (and funniest) fictional school since Dotheboys Hall in Dickens' MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. Well, maybe the university in Kingsley Amis' LUCKY JIM should be on the list, too, but that's about it.
One by one, the members of this mismatched trio leave their unsatisfying lives behind and take to the road. Inevitably, their lives intersect. Extremely evitably, if there is such a word, they all wind up involved in trying to resuscitate a failing variety troupe that's working the rag-end of British vaudeville in its final, melancholy days. It's show business, but just barely.
Among Priestley's many gifts are indelible characterization, a powerful sense of place, a fine, understated sense of humor, and the ability to write stories without villains. Adversity itself is villain enough in this world. The book reminds me of Dickens in both its humor and its theatricality but that's not to take away from Priestley's individuality. THE GOOD COMPANIONS was a sensational best-seller in its day, it's been the basis of several stage plays and half a dozen movies (Judi Dench, who starred in one of the films, provides an introduction to this excellent Kindle edition) and Priestley spent the rest of his life trying to write something that would make people stop thinking of him as the author of THE GOOD COMPANIONS. He got quite sticky about it and probably wound up regretting having written it.
Just in case I haven't made myself clear, I love this book.
books-books
May 2, 2014I am at last reading The Good Companions. I love it. That's the sort of book I would like to write.
P.G. Wodehouse
P.G. Wodehouse
April 24, 2022
Published in 1929. A working-class Yorkshireman, a disreputable young schoolmaster, and a colonel’s daughter – each abandons an unsatisfactory life for the open road. They come across each other, fall in with a failing theatrical touring company and set about making it a success.
My heart sank when I found this reading-group choice had 621 pages, but I’m really glad to have read it. Against the advice of his publisher, and with the collaborative and financial support of Hugh Walpole, Priestley said, ‘I saw no reason why the picaresque novel should vanish with the stagecoach. Why not one about my own England of the 1920s?’ The publisher was wrong – it fast achieved huge sales and has since been adapted several times for stage, screen and radio.
Exquisitely written, wryly amusing, intricately plotted, it is deservedly a twentieth-century classic.
My heart sank when I found this reading-group choice had 621 pages, but I’m really glad to have read it. Against the advice of his publisher, and with the collaborative and financial support of Hugh Walpole, Priestley said, ‘I saw no reason why the picaresque novel should vanish with the stagecoach. Why not one about my own England of the 1920s?’ The publisher was wrong – it fast achieved huge sales and has since been adapted several times for stage, screen and radio.
Exquisitely written, wryly amusing, intricately plotted, it is deservedly a twentieth-century classic.
September 7, 2012
I loved the way that Priestley drew you into this story and his portrayal of the Northern character. His descriptions of the various events which lead to the formation of the 'Good Companions' was wonderful and I couldn't put the book down. I now have to read more Priestley!
December 3, 2016
The Good Companions was a pleasant surprise that I came upon during a classic book challenge i undertook.
I never heard of it before, and it was quite a lengthy book at 640 pages or so. The book was a great read and has many colorful and funny characters in it and the story and plot is pretty good.
The story is really about three people who are parting their ways in their current lives to go on an adventure which pairs them all together when they meet up at a town called Rawsley in England.
The three people are Jessiah Oakroyd who is a handy man who does odd jobs and carpentry, his wife and kid are a bunch of jerks so Jessy decides to leave home. Elizabeth Trant, a woman who has taken care of her sick father, Colonel Trant, until his death, and finally Inigo Jolliphant whom teaches history and literature at a boarding school in which he gets canned and decides to go on playing piano.
They all meet up in Rawsley by chance and Elizabeth decides to manage and payout for a failing concert troupe called the Dinky Doo's in which later she changes that ridiculous name to the Good Companions. Inigo is their new piano player and Oakroyd helps build scenes and does odd jobs around the theater. There are other many great characters they meet along their journey to Rawsley and also during their time with the concert troupe, too many characters to mention, but the three are the main ones the story is about.
There wasn't one time during this whole book that I ever got bored the story just builds and builds and finally comes out to a great ending.
I never heard of it before, and it was quite a lengthy book at 640 pages or so. The book was a great read and has many colorful and funny characters in it and the story and plot is pretty good.
The story is really about three people who are parting their ways in their current lives to go on an adventure which pairs them all together when they meet up at a town called Rawsley in England.
The three people are Jessiah Oakroyd who is a handy man who does odd jobs and carpentry, his wife and kid are a bunch of jerks so Jessy decides to leave home. Elizabeth Trant, a woman who has taken care of her sick father, Colonel Trant, until his death, and finally Inigo Jolliphant whom teaches history and literature at a boarding school in which he gets canned and decides to go on playing piano.
They all meet up in Rawsley by chance and Elizabeth decides to manage and payout for a failing concert troupe called the Dinky Doo's in which later she changes that ridiculous name to the Good Companions. Inigo is their new piano player and Oakroyd helps build scenes and does odd jobs around the theater. There are other many great characters they meet along their journey to Rawsley and also during their time with the concert troupe, too many characters to mention, but the three are the main ones the story is about.
There wasn't one time during this whole book that I ever got bored the story just builds and builds and finally comes out to a great ending.
February 24, 2018
From BBC Radio 4 Dra,a:
John Retallack's dramatisation of J B Priestley's classic story of a 1929 Concert Party tour charts new adventures for factory worker Jess Oakroyd and newly independant Miss Trant.
Music composed by Neil Brand
Musicians Neil Brand, Michael Hammond & Alex Hammond.
Director: David Hunter.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s...
John Retallack's dramatisation of J B Priestley's classic story of a 1929 Concert Party tour charts new adventures for factory worker Jess Oakroyd and newly independant Miss Trant.
Music composed by Neil Brand
Musicians Neil Brand, Michael Hammond & Alex Hammond.
Director: David Hunter.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s...
Read
April 28, 2024I hope to write more as I ponder more!
February 10, 2026
Surprisingly I really enjoyed this story about a concert party troupe in the 1920s of England. Priestley characterizations were brilliant with Jess Oakridge, Miss Trant, Suzie, Indigo, Jimmy Nunn and Mr Mrs Joe Brundit as well as the pathological liar Morton Mitcham banjo player extraordinaire.
Divided into three books or parts the first book is about the background of Miss Trant whose father recently died. Jess is from Yorkshire in an unhappy marriage and who loses his job. He then decides to travel. Indigo is a teacher in a horrible school who gets drunk on his birthday and is fired. They all in a roundabout way get together.
The second and third books follows their adventures.
Nowadays traveling musical troupes no longer exist and the story almost a century old is hard to relate. However, the satire, ups and downs with strong characters with their traveling adventures is worth reading.
Divided into three books or parts the first book is about the background of Miss Trant whose father recently died. Jess is from Yorkshire in an unhappy marriage and who loses his job. He then decides to travel. Indigo is a teacher in a horrible school who gets drunk on his birthday and is fired. They all in a roundabout way get together.
The second and third books follows their adventures.
Nowadays traveling musical troupes no longer exist and the story almost a century old is hard to relate. However, the satire, ups and downs with strong characters with their traveling adventures is worth reading.
August 27, 2024
Lightly humorous and sentimental picaresque.
April 12, 2017
This is a delightful book, nicely written with humour and a pleasant, quirky cast and story. It was first published in 1929, written a few years earlier and became the bestseller of the depression.
It is the story of a travelling theatre group, but it starts with an ordinary working man being laid off from his work at a Yorkshire woolen mill, a gentlewoman selling up and moving out, and a schoolmaster getting the sack. In this book their misfortunes are the impetus for a new life. It brings together diverse characters from very different backgrounds, bohemian and traditional, middle and working classes and different temperaments, all working together, having adventures and some success. It is also partly a travelogue round Britain of the time.
There is an embedded social message, but it is worth reading because it is such great fun, whether we are in a depression or not.
It is the story of a travelling theatre group, but it starts with an ordinary working man being laid off from his work at a Yorkshire woolen mill, a gentlewoman selling up and moving out, and a schoolmaster getting the sack. In this book their misfortunes are the impetus for a new life. It brings together diverse characters from very different backgrounds, bohemian and traditional, middle and working classes and different temperaments, all working together, having adventures and some success. It is also partly a travelogue round Britain of the time.
There is an embedded social message, but it is worth reading because it is such great fun, whether we are in a depression or not.
December 30, 2009
I re-read this book last summer and loved it just as much as the first time. It was first published in 1929 and I hope it's not out of print. It's a road book, which I love, and involves a cast of memorable characters all drawn together into one traveling theatrical company. It probably helps to be able to decipher Yorkshire and cockney accents, but once you can do that, it's as full of good things as a plum pudding (hmmm... full of plums?) I recently read in Private Battles (a selection of first hand accounts of England and Scotland during the Blitz)that Priestly was much loved at the time for his radio broadcasts, and seen as the voice of the working people. If anyone knows more about this, let me know.
August 31, 2011
A delightful book, with lovable and memorable characters and lots of local colour. Follows the adventures of a troupe of music hall performers in what must be the 1920s, as they travel through small-town England. The diverse cast of characters is viewed mainly through the eyes of two 'outsiders' -- Jess Oakroyd, a working class middle-aged man from Yorkshire who has run away from home and unsympathetic wife; and Miss Trant, a middle aged lady who has come into a small fortune and decides to follow her dream and support the stranded troupe. Not a great book but thoroughly enjoyable.
November 10, 2012
I FOUND IT! I read this book back in Scotland, or maybe even before during university and I could never recall what it was or who it was by, except the fact that it was about a theater group in England. And now because of a Flavorwire article about Roald Dahl's Matilda and the books she read, I know what it was. Mystery solved.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2023
😰 phew! A long read but very enjoyable. 3.5
March 1, 2020
Another book on my read-through-the-20th-century project, this one was published in 1929 and is a great example of why it’s such a good idea to read old books.
It’s a “picaresque” novel, meaning it has to do with the adventures of characters who travel from place to place. In this case they’re a colorful group of theater people originally known as the Dinky Doos who have changed their name to The Good Companions. They belong to “concert party” (also known as a Pierrot troupe) who make their living traveling across England putting on shows.
Most likely this book would never be published these days primarily because of its length (over 600 pages) and Priestley’s leisurely style of including a great deal of descriptive information about people and places that's not all that necessary. If he were writing today much of it – like the charming paragraph about how to make Yorkshire Pudding - would probably be edited out in order to keep the pace moving.
But that leisurely pace is part of the reason this novel is so much fun to read. It’s set in a series of small English towns in the 1920s and provides an entertaining glimpse into what it was like to belong to a travelling troupe of music-hall entertainers at a time when such groups were beginning to be eclipsed by motion pictures.
Part of the fun of this novel comes from the cast of colorful characters and the way Priestley describes them: “Miss Potter had a sleek, almost electro-plated, blonde head; no eye-brows; very round blue eyes; a button of a nose, so small and heavily powdered that it resembled the chalked end of a billiard cue…”
It can be argued that this novel is definitely dated, and yet that’s one of the things that makes it so charming. Its characters travelled by “rail, and “lodged” in boarding houses. They wore ’jumper suits” when riding in “motor-cars” to protect their clothing from dust and they spent their money on sheet music or "gramophone records."
This is definitely a character-driven novel and Priestley had a knack for bringing them to life. At first I had a hard time deciphering some of the dialogue that took place between characters who spoke with Yorkshire or Cockney accents, but it didn’t take long to get used to it. And I enjoyed the fact that Priestley is an omniscient narrator who often interrupts the story to address readers directly. I got the feeling that he probably enjoyed writing this novel as much as I enjoyed reading it!
It’s a “picaresque” novel, meaning it has to do with the adventures of characters who travel from place to place. In this case they’re a colorful group of theater people originally known as the Dinky Doos who have changed their name to The Good Companions. They belong to “concert party” (also known as a Pierrot troupe) who make their living traveling across England putting on shows.
Most likely this book would never be published these days primarily because of its length (over 600 pages) and Priestley’s leisurely style of including a great deal of descriptive information about people and places that's not all that necessary. If he were writing today much of it – like the charming paragraph about how to make Yorkshire Pudding - would probably be edited out in order to keep the pace moving.
But that leisurely pace is part of the reason this novel is so much fun to read. It’s set in a series of small English towns in the 1920s and provides an entertaining glimpse into what it was like to belong to a travelling troupe of music-hall entertainers at a time when such groups were beginning to be eclipsed by motion pictures.
Part of the fun of this novel comes from the cast of colorful characters and the way Priestley describes them: “Miss Potter had a sleek, almost electro-plated, blonde head; no eye-brows; very round blue eyes; a button of a nose, so small and heavily powdered that it resembled the chalked end of a billiard cue…”
It can be argued that this novel is definitely dated, and yet that’s one of the things that makes it so charming. Its characters travelled by “rail, and “lodged” in boarding houses. They wore ’jumper suits” when riding in “motor-cars” to protect their clothing from dust and they spent their money on sheet music or "gramophone records."
This is definitely a character-driven novel and Priestley had a knack for bringing them to life. At first I had a hard time deciphering some of the dialogue that took place between characters who spoke with Yorkshire or Cockney accents, but it didn’t take long to get used to it. And I enjoyed the fact that Priestley is an omniscient narrator who often interrupts the story to address readers directly. I got the feeling that he probably enjoyed writing this novel as much as I enjoyed reading it!
November 20, 2019
It's taken me a few years to get around to this. I tried a few years ago but didn't get very far, but this time I made it. It takes a while to get going, 200 pages to get 3 of the characters on their separate journeys to meet up with the abandoned concert party and then it meanders around the country before building to a well expected finale. However, there is a charm to the story that is engaging, as are many of the characters, and once the story starts to flow - I did find the first three split narratives a struggle - it is a pleasant read. Then there are Priestley's insights, his descriptions of England, the towns and villages, the people, rogues and heroes, saints and sinners, marriages and friendships, all create a wonderful sense of a country coming to terms with itself and things being possible. His summation of football alone (less than 0.1% of the book) is worth the read and is used regularly by the better football journalists even today. Priestley enjoys bringing together strangers from different class, age, ambition and tradition and seeing what they will do together for the greater good. It is of its time, but remains an entertaining feast, albeit overcooked.
January 24, 2013
A great picaresque novel (1929) of english characters, high and low, forming a travelling concert party.
April 27, 2014
Maybe not great literature but I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much.
January 2, 2018
Didn't think it was as good as 'Angel Pavement' and was possibly longer than it needed to be, but I'll miss Mr Oakroyd. I'd have been happy to see a bit more of him!
Want to read
May 13, 2017Mentioned in, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
July 21, 2019
A bit less charm and a bit more grittiness would’ve done the job of earning it five.
January 2, 2024
So many well written , sympathetic , thought provoking characters in this book . Even the peripheral players are believable and often very funny
June 27, 2019
Break a leg! Madcap is not my cup o’ tea. But this adorable book does it right. I'd never've discovered it if not for our Matilda. Manages to create characters of character, ones you care about, ones you root for and love. Zany situations here are of a human pattern and heartfelt purpose. The play’s the thing, and alls well that ends well, rooted in the heart’s desire for something real. Something more.
November 22, 2014
This is that rare thing - a thoroughly good read with a little bit of bite. It is essentially a 'picaresque' road story - a tale of three mis-placed, disaffected individuals who somehow hook up with a touring concert party and have the time of their lives. The three are totally disparate - a young graduate mouldering away as a teacher in a dull prep school; a vicar's daughter who has had no life but now has a considerable inheritance; and a late middle-aged multi-skilled artisan bored of his life, bored of his stultifying wife and annoyed by his go-getting son who thinks that everything his Dad has strived for is worthless.
This is how we meet Inigo Jollifant, Miss Elizabeth Trant and Mr Jess Oakroyd. Together they transform the fortunes of the distressed concert party 'The Dinky-Doos' that they encounter on their uppers in a dismal Midlands town.
The 'Dinky-Doos' become 'The Good Companions'. Miss Trant supplies the money to keep them going. Mr. Jollifant supplies the tunes and songs that make them a cut above your average 'pierrot'/end of the pier show. Mr Oakroyd provides enthusiasm and good old-fashioned cheerful, working-class moral back-bone to the ensemble.
There are ups and there are some very serious downs as 'The Good Companions' tour around England. Miss Trant often wonders why she has put her money into this seemingly hopeless project.
Spoiler Alert!
The bite in this wonderful, funny, entertaining picaresque comes in the very 'open-ended' ending. There is no resolution. The stars of the show get a chance at the big-time in London. Will they make it? The 'journey-men' troupers in the party get a summer season in a seaside town - but what will become of them come winter? Miss Trant gets her investment back and will probablŷ marry her old sweetheart of many years ago (the Scots doctor). Mr Oakroyd goes to Canada to be reunited with his beloved daughter. He goes into business with his son-in-law as a jobbing carpenter - but he misses Yorkshire and he can't get the football results until 2 weeks after they've happened!
Bitter-sweet. Just as JBP intended.
This is how we meet Inigo Jollifant, Miss Elizabeth Trant and Mr Jess Oakroyd. Together they transform the fortunes of the distressed concert party 'The Dinky-Doos' that they encounter on their uppers in a dismal Midlands town.
The 'Dinky-Doos' become 'The Good Companions'. Miss Trant supplies the money to keep them going. Mr. Jollifant supplies the tunes and songs that make them a cut above your average 'pierrot'/end of the pier show. Mr Oakroyd provides enthusiasm and good old-fashioned cheerful, working-class moral back-bone to the ensemble.
There are ups and there are some very serious downs as 'The Good Companions' tour around England. Miss Trant often wonders why she has put her money into this seemingly hopeless project.
Spoiler Alert!
The bite in this wonderful, funny, entertaining picaresque comes in the very 'open-ended' ending. There is no resolution. The stars of the show get a chance at the big-time in London. Will they make it? The 'journey-men' troupers in the party get a summer season in a seaside town - but what will become of them come winter? Miss Trant gets her investment back and will probablŷ marry her old sweetheart of many years ago (the Scots doctor). Mr Oakroyd goes to Canada to be reunited with his beloved daughter. He goes into business with his son-in-law as a jobbing carpenter - but he misses Yorkshire and he can't get the football results until 2 weeks after they've happened!
Bitter-sweet. Just as JBP intended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2020
First things first, prospective readers should know that this is a really long book – surprisingly long, given that it mostly details the amiable, not-all-that-threatened lives of a group of touring actors in the English provinces. It’s light and breezy and I could just see an editor today saying “your manuscript is 640 small-print pages and nothing happens?? Call me when you’ve cut it in half!”
But the rewards for sitting with these characters and their everyday lives for 640 small-print pages are deep and varied and you wind up shedding a tear over their absence as soon as you cross the final sentence (on p. 640). The level of character detail and description of events makes it feel like you’re not just hearing about these actors as they make their way from town to town from an omniscient narrator, you’re there WITH them. You walk with them, you visit and gossip with them, you explore towns and meet new people and pray for a good audience, night after night.
The credit for this deceptively simple book exploding like fireworks is due to Priestley, who, as a novelist as well as playwright, is so damn good at telling a story. His characters are hilarious, heartfelt, and layered, and his bang-up dialogue brilliantly evokes the time and place.
Finally, my biggest endorsement for reading this book is because, in reading it, you’ll get the distinct pleasure of meeting Jess Oakroyd. Mr. Oakroyd is quite easily one of my all-time favorite characters I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. The first chapter, all about the stifling home life he suddenly decides to escape, and a stretch of writing that could function as a perfect isolated short story, is a heavenly depiction of a guy you just love from the word go. The novel ends with him, too, in a resolution both simple and profound. All in all well worth reading if this kind of escapism appeals to you.
But the rewards for sitting with these characters and their everyday lives for 640 small-print pages are deep and varied and you wind up shedding a tear over their absence as soon as you cross the final sentence (on p. 640). The level of character detail and description of events makes it feel like you’re not just hearing about these actors as they make their way from town to town from an omniscient narrator, you’re there WITH them. You walk with them, you visit and gossip with them, you explore towns and meet new people and pray for a good audience, night after night.
The credit for this deceptively simple book exploding like fireworks is due to Priestley, who, as a novelist as well as playwright, is so damn good at telling a story. His characters are hilarious, heartfelt, and layered, and his bang-up dialogue brilliantly evokes the time and place.
Finally, my biggest endorsement for reading this book is because, in reading it, you’ll get the distinct pleasure of meeting Jess Oakroyd. Mr. Oakroyd is quite easily one of my all-time favorite characters I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. The first chapter, all about the stifling home life he suddenly decides to escape, and a stretch of writing that could function as a perfect isolated short story, is a heavenly depiction of a guy you just love from the word go. The novel ends with him, too, in a resolution both simple and profound. All in all well worth reading if this kind of escapism appeals to you.
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