Fellow Passenger

by Geoffrey Household

An international scoundrel recalls his life of intrigue and adventure in a witty and exciting nonstop thriller Held prisoner in Britain’s fabled Tower of London, Claudio Howard-Wolferstan revels in his well-earned notoriety and reflects on the events that landed him here. A rogue and an adventurer of English and Ecuadorian descent, he has lived a globe-trotting life of peril and excitement, driven by an addiction to the adrenaline rush that comes with placing himself in constant, life-threatening jeopardy. Having used a youthful flirtation with communism to its greatest advantage, he recalls with pride a satisfying career of break-ins and burglaries, brazen deceptions, wild escapes, and daring exploits that made him a target of the British MI6 intelligence service and Soviets alike, and ultimately landed him in the most fabled lock-up in Great Britain. But in an international atmosphere of mistrust, tension, and warring political philosophies, there will always be a place for his kind, and the world hasn’t yet heard the last of Claudio Howard-Wolferstan. In the pantheon of great twentieth-century thriller writers, Geoffrey Household, acclaimed for his evocative and colorful locales, deeply human characters, and distinct storytelling voice, occupies a place of honor besides such notable names as Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming, and Len Deighton. Household’s breathtaking tales of adventure and intrigue are as enthralling today as they were then, and Fellow Passenger shines with excitement, invention, and wit—a virtuoso performance by a true maestro.

Genres: British Literature

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1963

About the author

British author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .

In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.

Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.

Reviews

[Derek Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some way below Rogue Male (my first encounter with Household) in terms of quality but it's still a very fine book. Claudio, the hero, is an engaging character who gets into all kinds of scrapes, amusingly detailed by Household. In fact, the book is a sort of light-hearted, more knockabout version of Rogue Male mainly because Claudio is only at risk of going to prison, and not being shot and killed as was the case with the protagonist of the earlier book. The discussion of some aspects of Communism left me a bit cold and there is a sequence in a circus that is not very believable but everything else unfolds logically and compellingly. On this evidence, Household used the same plot time and time again but when he tells stories of this high standard with such brio and elegance then who cares?

[Pamela Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on the offchance that it would be as gripping as Rogue Male and in places it is. It is also full of sly humour which was very enjoyable. I wasn't convinced by the elephants, but I would recommend it as a bit of light readng.