What do you think?
Rate this book
Mr Finchley #3
Mr Finchley Takes the Road
Book 3 of the classic trilogy of humorous rural adventures through pre-war England
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.
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.
Audiobook
First published July 28, 2009
103 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Victor Canning
163 books59 followersVictor Canning was a prolific writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but whose reputation has faded since his death in 1986. He was personally reticent, writing no memoirs and giving relatively few newspaper interviews.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 4, 2022
Enjoyed the first one the best and while the series overall wasn't a bad one it didn't spark any strong feelings for me. But I'm glad I've read it though
May 2, 2017
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
1932: Edgar heads to Kent in a horse-drawn caravan, and someone is interested. Victor Canning's tale stars Richard Griffiths.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k0qs
1932: Edgar heads to Kent in a horse-drawn caravan, and someone is interested. Victor Canning's tale stars Richard Griffiths.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k0qs
Read
May 14, 2020In another world, where our government or China's (or maybe, wonder of wonders, both) had the least competence in managing the outbreak of an infectious disease, I would have been in Kent myself this week. As is, I've been reading an account of a trip there which is necessarily closer to the idea of Kent than the 21st century real thing could ever hope to match. But one which, having come out in 1940, would already have represented a bygone world to its first readers – and even within that, if we take it as representing the world a few years earlier, is still threaded through with its own laments for how much the world has changed. Partial ones, to be sure – Mr Finchley and the narrator, who are often though not always in accord, have little time for automobiles and rush, none at all for advertising hoardings, but seem absolutely fine with hot and cold running water and electricity in homes, and never to note any contradiction in that.
It's interesting how many of the things which ain't what they used to be in this account continue to be exactly the same nowadays, like the system arranged for the benefit of financiers which leaves farmers, so much more necessary, mired in debt. Or people complaining how hard it is nowadays to think with all the distractions of the modern world, like cinema and radio – just like they do now about screens (or at least did until screens were legally mandated as our only allowable contact with the outside world, since when most though not all of the complainants seem to have wound their necks in a bit, which is at least one good thing to come out of this). Just as they did about theatre in the Renaissance or writing in the ancient world; just like they probably did back around the invention of speech, with a disapproving grunt. For a book about the ways in which the world has changed, it's reassuring in a wry sort of way how much is still so familiar, like the ghastly child whose indulgent parent thinks the beastly behaviour shows them to be "So high spirited...like all great artists". Elsewhere, of course, one does wince, as when the Captain extolling the delights of the sea talks about how "You can throw your litter as much as you like but the sea'll swallow it up, and a floating tin can is an object of curiosity out here, not an eyesore as it would be in a country hedge." Or Mr Finchley's Hampstead house: "he could sell it for twelve hundred pounds almost any day". But equally, one can come across the rant "Stealin' my rabbits, eh? Steal my pheasants, too, if you got the chance. And a man who'll steal other people's pheasants would just as soon come into your house, cut the throats of everyone there and make off the with the silver..." and think, isn't that exactly the same spurious slippery slope argument as the noughties 'You wouldn't steal a car...' promo which made some legally purchased DVDs such a good invitation to piracy?
That particular gem comes from the Colonel, a species of petty tyrant who still survives in the countryside now, albeit not quite so thoroughly indulged by the law. He's one of the important correctives to what could otherwise become a polemic, as too when Mr Finchley visits an old blacksmith and, talking to him about how he misses the good old days, sentiments with which the book broadly agrees, is given a stern reminder by one with first-hand experience that the good old days weren't so good for the children working from 8 to 6. Still, those darknesses are seldom allowed to get so deep for long. This is at heart a comic novel. Only occasionally an uproarious one (though the scene at the parade ground is a masterpiece of the form), but mostly the sort in which we're sure things will turn out for the best. Yes, it does feel the need to include an intrigue plot and a kidnapping, just like its two predecessors, which is no more welcome for being properly foreshadowed this time – though that foreshadowing does in passing include one interesting linguistic moment, when a man's haircut is described as lending him "a slight shade of feminism" where now we'd say 'femininity'. That, though, is a distraction in a book which would have worked much better left to its gentle lead plot, in which office worker Mr Finchley, freshly retired, buys a canary-yellow dream of a horse-drawn caravan and sets off with a sheaf of estate agents' notices to find his family a suitable new house in Kent, meeting curious people and having mild adventures along the way. After his two prior adventures, Finchley has been reset a little back into suited drone mode, but certainly not as drastically or annoyingly as in the second book, which we can now see to have been very much the Temple of Doom* of the series. Reading about his complicated feelings on retirement while Britain is locked down was an interesting contrast, that sense of life going on without him exactly what none of us now have because everyone's lives are on standby, at best. But that bittersweet sense of a routine lost even if chunks of it can't honestly be missed, that hit harder than it might otherwise have done. So too lines like "It was a pleasant, stirring warmth that invited the mind to thoughts of the country and lazy scenes that lay so close in the summer's future" – if only! And even before Mr Finchley makes it out of the city, the hymn to Hampstead Heath; the slow horse-drawn journey down past Tufnell Park Station, down Gray's Inn Road, across Blackfriars Bridge; even, gods help me, the traffic jam in Holborn, are now things to miss bitterly and wonder if or when we'll ever see them again. But it's outside the city that Canning really lets loose, always capturing the essence of the supporting cast perfectly in a line, but then using that space instead with seductive delineations of country scenes, charming villages and quiet pubs. Which don't always stay quiet, granted: the wonderfully named chapter "The effect of cider upon social conscience" demonstrates the proof of a fellow drinker's claim that "It's funny how few people really have the right kind of head for cider. The only folk who can really drink cider are marshmen, Somerset men whose blood is mixed with the damp of the rhines and sedgelands. Cider can't touch you if you've got mist and rain in your blood."** For the most part, though, it's a consoling English idyll: dreams of the open road where you're still never too far from home; liberty without loneliness; tradition without inconvenience.
*Not just in being the weak middle of a trilogy, but in its occasional tendency to lapse from mild xenophobic comedy into 'you have to remember it was a very different time'. Yes, this one does have the very occasional awkward moment – like talking about "the age-old racial urge that had filled their forefathers with a sense of the justice and correctness of their way of life. Man belonged to the land; the farther he went from it, the stronger became its call and the more turbulent his discontents" – but nowhere near on the same level as a book which seemed largely animated by visceral horror at the notion of leaving a young English lad to be raised by the French.
**Which last bit would cover Vikings too, I suppose, and thus perhaps explain my own fondness.
(Netgalley ARC)
It's interesting how many of the things which ain't what they used to be in this account continue to be exactly the same nowadays, like the system arranged for the benefit of financiers which leaves farmers, so much more necessary, mired in debt. Or people complaining how hard it is nowadays to think with all the distractions of the modern world, like cinema and radio – just like they do now about screens (or at least did until screens were legally mandated as our only allowable contact with the outside world, since when most though not all of the complainants seem to have wound their necks in a bit, which is at least one good thing to come out of this). Just as they did about theatre in the Renaissance or writing in the ancient world; just like they probably did back around the invention of speech, with a disapproving grunt. For a book about the ways in which the world has changed, it's reassuring in a wry sort of way how much is still so familiar, like the ghastly child whose indulgent parent thinks the beastly behaviour shows them to be "So high spirited...like all great artists". Elsewhere, of course, one does wince, as when the Captain extolling the delights of the sea talks about how "You can throw your litter as much as you like but the sea'll swallow it up, and a floating tin can is an object of curiosity out here, not an eyesore as it would be in a country hedge." Or Mr Finchley's Hampstead house: "he could sell it for twelve hundred pounds almost any day". But equally, one can come across the rant "Stealin' my rabbits, eh? Steal my pheasants, too, if you got the chance. And a man who'll steal other people's pheasants would just as soon come into your house, cut the throats of everyone there and make off the with the silver..." and think, isn't that exactly the same spurious slippery slope argument as the noughties 'You wouldn't steal a car...' promo which made some legally purchased DVDs such a good invitation to piracy?
That particular gem comes from the Colonel, a species of petty tyrant who still survives in the countryside now, albeit not quite so thoroughly indulged by the law. He's one of the important correctives to what could otherwise become a polemic, as too when Mr Finchley visits an old blacksmith and, talking to him about how he misses the good old days, sentiments with which the book broadly agrees, is given a stern reminder by one with first-hand experience that the good old days weren't so good for the children working from 8 to 6. Still, those darknesses are seldom allowed to get so deep for long. This is at heart a comic novel. Only occasionally an uproarious one (though the scene at the parade ground is a masterpiece of the form), but mostly the sort in which we're sure things will turn out for the best. Yes, it does feel the need to include an intrigue plot and a kidnapping, just like its two predecessors, which is no more welcome for being properly foreshadowed this time – though that foreshadowing does in passing include one interesting linguistic moment, when a man's haircut is described as lending him "a slight shade of feminism" where now we'd say 'femininity'. That, though, is a distraction in a book which would have worked much better left to its gentle lead plot, in which office worker Mr Finchley, freshly retired, buys a canary-yellow dream of a horse-drawn caravan and sets off with a sheaf of estate agents' notices to find his family a suitable new house in Kent, meeting curious people and having mild adventures along the way. After his two prior adventures, Finchley has been reset a little back into suited drone mode, but certainly not as drastically or annoyingly as in the second book, which we can now see to have been very much the Temple of Doom* of the series. Reading about his complicated feelings on retirement while Britain is locked down was an interesting contrast, that sense of life going on without him exactly what none of us now have because everyone's lives are on standby, at best. But that bittersweet sense of a routine lost even if chunks of it can't honestly be missed, that hit harder than it might otherwise have done. So too lines like "It was a pleasant, stirring warmth that invited the mind to thoughts of the country and lazy scenes that lay so close in the summer's future" – if only! And even before Mr Finchley makes it out of the city, the hymn to Hampstead Heath; the slow horse-drawn journey down past Tufnell Park Station, down Gray's Inn Road, across Blackfriars Bridge; even, gods help me, the traffic jam in Holborn, are now things to miss bitterly and wonder if or when we'll ever see them again. But it's outside the city that Canning really lets loose, always capturing the essence of the supporting cast perfectly in a line, but then using that space instead with seductive delineations of country scenes, charming villages and quiet pubs. Which don't always stay quiet, granted: the wonderfully named chapter "The effect of cider upon social conscience" demonstrates the proof of a fellow drinker's claim that "It's funny how few people really have the right kind of head for cider. The only folk who can really drink cider are marshmen, Somerset men whose blood is mixed with the damp of the rhines and sedgelands. Cider can't touch you if you've got mist and rain in your blood."** For the most part, though, it's a consoling English idyll: dreams of the open road where you're still never too far from home; liberty without loneliness; tradition without inconvenience.
*Not just in being the weak middle of a trilogy, but in its occasional tendency to lapse from mild xenophobic comedy into 'you have to remember it was a very different time'. Yes, this one does have the very occasional awkward moment – like talking about "the age-old racial urge that had filled their forefathers with a sense of the justice and correctness of their way of life. Man belonged to the land; the farther he went from it, the stronger became its call and the more turbulent his discontents" – but nowhere near on the same level as a book which seemed largely animated by visceral horror at the notion of leaving a young English lad to be raised by the French.
**Which last bit would cover Vikings too, I suppose, and thus perhaps explain my own fondness.
(Netgalley ARC)
March 6, 2014
blurb - This was the third and last book featuring Mr Finchley, the middle-aged clerk, a sequel to Mr Finchley discover his England and Mr Finchley goes to Paris. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1940 at 9/- with a print run of 7,700, and there was an American edition by Carrick and Evans in the same year. It was included in the Heinemann Uniform Edition in the 1970s, but it is now appearing for the first time in paperback. The first edition is the rarest of the Mr Finchley books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2019
I enjoyed the first of this trilogy (Mr Finchley Discovers His England) but I have run into diminishing returns in the later two books.
In Mr Finchley Takes The Road, the engaging and ultimately redoubtable Mr F. has a dramatic change in domestic circumstances and tours Kent in a horse-drawn caravan. It’s fine in its way and if you’ve read Mr Finchley Discovers His England you’ll know pretty much what to expect: loving descriptions of the English countryside, amusing and eccentric characters, malfeasance vanquished...and so on. It’s enjoyable, gentle stuff and an easy read, but for me one book of it was sufficient, so while there’s nothing wrong with this one, it all felt a little familiar and it didn’t quite hold my interest.
Other readers plainly don’t agree and found Mr Finchley Takes The Road as enjoyable as the first two books so don’t let me put you off, but personally I can only give it a rather qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
In Mr Finchley Takes The Road, the engaging and ultimately redoubtable Mr F. has a dramatic change in domestic circumstances and tours Kent in a horse-drawn caravan. It’s fine in its way and if you’ve read Mr Finchley Discovers His England you’ll know pretty much what to expect: loving descriptions of the English countryside, amusing and eccentric characters, malfeasance vanquished...and so on. It’s enjoyable, gentle stuff and an easy read, but for me one book of it was sufficient, so while there’s nothing wrong with this one, it all felt a little familiar and it didn’t quite hold my interest.
Other readers plainly don’t agree and found Mr Finchley Takes The Road as enjoyable as the first two books so don’t let me put you off, but personally I can only give it a rather qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
June 16, 2019
This was hard to rate for me. It’s more of a 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was written back in the 20’s or 30’s. It’s very poetic and slow paced. Mr. Finchley is a simple man who enjoys each moment. He sees the good in all aground him, doesn’t get mad easily and gains back a happy demeanor quickly after getting his dander up.
In this third installment of the series, Mr. Finchley buys a caravan and sets out to found a country home for his family. These books take me awhile to appreciate. In today’s world there is an inherit distrust of people and we move at a super face pace, as such, it takes me while to settle into the poetic beauty of the writing the meanders like a slow stream. Sometimes I want to scream at Mr. Finchley for his trusting nature but then I remind myself to slow down and enjoy the journey which is when I found myself enjoying the book more.
This book was written back in the 20’s or 30’s. It’s very poetic and slow paced. Mr. Finchley is a simple man who enjoys each moment. He sees the good in all aground him, doesn’t get mad easily and gains back a happy demeanor quickly after getting his dander up.
In this third installment of the series, Mr. Finchley buys a caravan and sets out to found a country home for his family. These books take me awhile to appreciate. In today’s world there is an inherit distrust of people and we move at a super face pace, as such, it takes me while to settle into the poetic beauty of the writing the meanders like a slow stream. Sometimes I want to scream at Mr. Finchley for his trusting nature but then I remind myself to slow down and enjoy the journey which is when I found myself enjoying the book more.
March 7, 2022
Utter brilliance
August 24, 2019
This is the last book in the series, and if one has grown fond of Mr. Finchley and his eclectic family by now, it is more of a treat than the last two.
Mr.Finchley decides to retire- it is not a decision to be taken lightly. In order to secure his family's future in a new place, he sets off on yet another adventure. This time it is meant to be a leisurely paced travel, old-world style by a horse-drawn caravan. I say meant, because yet again, as is in his fate a lot of adventures befall him. It begins with the actual acquiring of the caravan and then a horse. Then learning to 'operate' the two together. This is followed by all those people who find a great listening ear in him and cling to him till he finds it hard to get rid of them. He travels far and wide trying to identify the best spot to set down roots but there seems to be more sinister trouble following him at his heels this time around.
He sends out regular missives to his wife and son and gets enthusiastic responses. The icing of the story for me was the communication between them all, they were so simple but yet filled with so much! I liked this book best of all and it was peppered with profound statements as he contemplates life and thought and everything related to humans and society in general. It doesn't get too much because a couple of pages following these profound contemplations something absurd happens from a thief returning his loot, to a pig saving his skin, being mistaken for a poacher or even his horse enjoying music and posters. This takes some of the seriousness out of his thoughts leaving behind just a mild message. I would have loved the book if it was a tiny bit shorter but even with that being the case, I might just get back to it someday for the pleasure of it.
I received all three books thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is completely based on my own reading experience.
Mr.Finchley decides to retire- it is not a decision to be taken lightly. In order to secure his family's future in a new place, he sets off on yet another adventure. This time it is meant to be a leisurely paced travel, old-world style by a horse-drawn caravan. I say meant, because yet again, as is in his fate a lot of adventures befall him. It begins with the actual acquiring of the caravan and then a horse. Then learning to 'operate' the two together. This is followed by all those people who find a great listening ear in him and cling to him till he finds it hard to get rid of them. He travels far and wide trying to identify the best spot to set down roots but there seems to be more sinister trouble following him at his heels this time around.
He sends out regular missives to his wife and son and gets enthusiastic responses. The icing of the story for me was the communication between them all, they were so simple but yet filled with so much! I liked this book best of all and it was peppered with profound statements as he contemplates life and thought and everything related to humans and society in general. It doesn't get too much because a couple of pages following these profound contemplations something absurd happens from a thief returning his loot, to a pig saving his skin, being mistaken for a poacher or even his horse enjoying music and posters. This takes some of the seriousness out of his thoughts leaving behind just a mild message. I would have loved the book if it was a tiny bit shorter but even with that being the case, I might just get back to it someday for the pleasure of it.
I received all three books thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is completely based on my own reading experience.
October 24, 2023
Wonderful...of the period...wonder idioms and speech from different accents and places in London and
So sorry the trilogy is all...or is it? Want to know what happened to all three Finchleys in their newfound home! Bought all Victor Manning's books that I could find just to get more of the laughter and feeling from his rambling stories and rambles through the English countryside... as well as his descriptions of the everyday lives of Londoners of this era.
Enjoyed all three in the trilogy.
Must remind readers...I found !myself getting angry when I read...the mores and prejudices and racism and sexist remarks that abound in this period...and these statements , though few and far between in this book and the others, still rankled...
Overall the stories are silly and harmless and very funny. The situations seem at times so ridiculous that they beg believability!
As I read further and got into the rhythms and cadences of the characters and the stories themselves...I forgot my own opinions and realized that the overall picture I was forming was that the people were mostly just like you and me with all the foibles and complexities we are still facing today. I must day not enough has changed in our attitudes since this 1930's period that we should be surprised at the writing taking place at that time.
I bow my head to the comic and a dept writing of Mr Victor Canning...and recommend them with mild caution his books from which many readers will find a vacation from our real lives in a lively, numerous (sometimes truly laugh aloud funny, series that reminds us of days gone by and what we still need to overcome and challenge today.
Rnjoy! I did.
So sorry the trilogy is all...or is it? Want to know what happened to all three Finchleys in their newfound home! Bought all Victor Manning's books that I could find just to get more of the laughter and feeling from his rambling stories and rambles through the English countryside... as well as his descriptions of the everyday lives of Londoners of this era.
Enjoyed all three in the trilogy.
Must remind readers...I found !myself getting angry when I read...the mores and prejudices and racism and sexist remarks that abound in this period...and these statements , though few and far between in this book and the others, still rankled...
Overall the stories are silly and harmless and very funny. The situations seem at times so ridiculous that they beg believability!
As I read further and got into the rhythms and cadences of the characters and the stories themselves...I forgot my own opinions and realized that the overall picture I was forming was that the people were mostly just like you and me with all the foibles and complexities we are still facing today. I must day not enough has changed in our attitudes since this 1930's period that we should be surprised at the writing taking place at that time.
I bow my head to the comic and a dept writing of Mr Victor Canning...and recommend them with mild caution his books from which many readers will find a vacation from our real lives in a lively, numerous (sometimes truly laugh aloud funny, series that reminds us of days gone by and what we still need to overcome and challenge today.
Rnjoy! I did.
April 8, 2019
On first glance this is a gentle tale, set in a time before the Second World War which was quite a different world to that of today. However, it is much more. The story is interesting - Mr Finchley retires from his solicitor's office in London and wants to find a country retreat for his family, and events lead him to make the search with a yellow caravan pulled by a horse called Churchwarden.
There are some real laugh out loud moments - my favourite involving a pig, a parade and a runaway horse! There are also some very astute reflections on life, although just occasionally the author gets carried away and strays into pontification. But mostly the points made resonate clearly across the years.
The story is stopped from being too sugary by the sub-plot - someone is looking for this caravan, and becomes more and more aggressive in his efforts to track down Mr Finchley. And not all the characters Mr Finchley meets are as pleasant as they first appear.
Overall a very enjoyable read - and it would make an excellent film! The characters are likeable and well drawn, and the story is entertaining.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrago for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
There are some real laugh out loud moments - my favourite involving a pig, a parade and a runaway horse! There are also some very astute reflections on life, although just occasionally the author gets carried away and strays into pontification. But mostly the points made resonate clearly across the years.
The story is stopped from being too sugary by the sub-plot - someone is looking for this caravan, and becomes more and more aggressive in his efforts to track down Mr Finchley. And not all the characters Mr Finchley meets are as pleasant as they first appear.
Overall a very enjoyable read - and it would make an excellent film! The characters are likeable and well drawn, and the story is entertaining.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrago for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 19, 2021
As captivating as the first book in the trilogy, if not more. The setting is Kent this time, and I was able to follow Mr Finchley's progress in his horse-drawn caravan on a map. I was struck by how familiar, in this pre-WWII book, was the viewpoint of a farmer he works for to that of farmers today. However, the criminals he encounters reveal their identities readily which I'm sure would not happen now - reducing them to pantomime villains. Hugely enjoyable, this series of books is entertaining our family with the books being easily accessible in the new classic edition from our library network. I've also purchased the kindle edition so I can read the series again when I need a book to make me smile. The shadow of the impending second world war hangs over my reading, but there's no hint of this in the books. There are about 10 books in Victor Canning's classic series and I may venture into some of the others, but I will miss the characters from the Mr Finchley books.
April 27, 2019
Mr. Finchley Takes the Road, by Victor Canning, was originally published in 1940. It is the third book in a trilogy but reads well as a stand alone novel. Mr. Finchley, of the title is a mild mannered, middle aged, bachelor, solicitor's clerk. In this novel he buys a horse and caravan and travels around the British countryside is search of a house to purchase. Of course, he encounters lots of delightful, little adventures, amusing characters, and misunderstandings along the way.
This reviewer especially enjoyed the author's descriptions of the British countryside as he evoked a life style that has log faded away, A light and lovely read, it is easy to understand why this was part of such a popular series during the Depression years
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
This reviewer especially enjoyed the author's descriptions of the British countryside as he evoked a life style that has log faded away, A light and lovely read, it is easy to understand why this was part of such a popular series during the Depression years
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
June 5, 2019
In the final book of Victor Channing's Mr. Finchley adventures, our gentle protagonist is now married with an adopted son and just about to retire at age 50. As part of his plans Mr.Finchley and his wife plan to retire to the English countryside. This leads to him buying a horse and caravan to scour the countryside for a house to settle in. As expected to more adventures and escapades involving a series of characters and rogues do follow.
The book takes delight in its description of the English countryside and manages to fit in commentary regarding a romanticised past and complaints about the commercialism of advertisements in the countryside.
Like the previous two books, this cannot be recommended more highly.
This book was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
The book takes delight in its description of the English countryside and manages to fit in commentary regarding a romanticised past and complaints about the commercialism of advertisements in the countryside.
Like the previous two books, this cannot be recommended more highly.
This book was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
February 27, 2024
These Mr Finchley books by Victor Canning are simply delightful! I enjoyed the first one so much that my giggles and chuckles made my husband curious about what I was reading. Now I am re-reading 'Mr Finchley Discovers His England' again, outloud to my hubby on road trips.
This is another story of Mr Finchley's gentle adventures. Retiring early so that he can settle himself and his family somewhere in the country while he is still young enough to learn some new skills, Mr Finchley buys a caravan and goes off to Kent to do some house viewing, and of course he has one delightful experience and or adventure after another.
This book is so wholesome and a delicious escape from the cares of today's world.
This is another story of Mr Finchley's gentle adventures. Retiring early so that he can settle himself and his family somewhere in the country while he is still young enough to learn some new skills, Mr Finchley buys a caravan and goes off to Kent to do some house viewing, and of course he has one delightful experience and or adventure after another.
This book is so wholesome and a delicious escape from the cares of today's world.
July 13, 2019
Traveling England in a Horse Drawn Caravan!
Another grand adventure for Mr. Finchley! As he travels across England in a horse-drawn caravan he learns more about himself. This is a beautiful story that the reader can place himself in Mr.F's shoes and enjoy the journey vicariously through him. He ponders the wonders of nature, the nature of man and the truth of happiness. The story is fun and philosophical. While this book gives a glimpse into British life between the wars, it also shows it not to be quite the simple and easy life of family lore. I received this book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
Another grand adventure for Mr. Finchley! As he travels across England in a horse-drawn caravan he learns more about himself. This is a beautiful story that the reader can place himself in Mr.F's shoes and enjoy the journey vicariously through him. He ponders the wonders of nature, the nature of man and the truth of happiness. The story is fun and philosophical. While this book gives a glimpse into British life between the wars, it also shows it not to be quite the simple and easy life of family lore. I received this book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
June 10, 2021
The sequel to Mr Finchley Goes To Paris which I liked and found the hapless character of Mr Finchley quite amusing.
In Mr Finchley Takes the Road Mr Finchley, 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.
Received a review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Received a review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
#MrFinchley #NetGalley
In Mr Finchley Takes the Road Mr Finchley, 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.
Received a review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Received a review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
#MrFinchley #NetGalley
July 11, 2019
This is the third in the series although it is not essential to have read the others i think they help to set the scene for this one. This is a lovely easy read set in a time when life was lived at a slower pace. It recounts the adventures Mr Finchley has when he buys a caravan and tours Kent trying to find a country home. He meets people from all ends of society with a sanguine countenance and as in all good books of this type everything turns out well in the end
December 20, 2021
A Wonderful Reminder Of Days Gone By
I did not realise before reading this book, that it is mostly set in Kent where I also reside, so it was wonderful to read about Mr Finchley’s travels around my local area in the 1930’s. Written in beautiful English, using prose applicable at the time, it is written for a more carefree time. A wonderful way to lose yourself into another English life before ours.
I did not realise before reading this book, that it is mostly set in Kent where I also reside, so it was wonderful to read about Mr Finchley’s travels around my local area in the 1930’s. Written in beautiful English, using prose applicable at the time, it is written for a more carefree time. A wonderful way to lose yourself into another English life before ours.
June 2, 2020
It was nice to escape to Mr. Finchley’s world for the couple of weeks it took me to read this series. I’ll miss his family and his adventures, and will be sure to remember him fondly, as if he is one of my own.
October 3, 2025
I read this after hearing an excellent BBC Radio adaptation. A charming comic odyssey concerning a man's post-retirement quest to find a home in Kent for he and his family, by means of an impulse acquisition - a gypsy caravan (and horse). Full of bucolic evocation and wonderful comic characters.
May 6, 2017
Good holiday reading
A very enjoyable read,it is a book I have I meant to read for a long time. Looking forward to my next adventure with Mr Finchley.
A very enjoyable read,it is a book I have I meant to read for a long time. Looking forward to my next adventure with Mr Finchley.
July 6, 2020
Nice cozy series
September 25, 2020
This trilogy was a fun set of adventures! Even when characters were eccentric they were still believable, which I appreciate.
October 15, 2020
I love his positive and beautiful writing.
I can't get enough of his delightful stories.
Twelve more words are required to finish this positive review of Victor Channig.
I can't get enough of his delightful stories.
Twelve more words are required to finish this positive review of Victor Channig.
November 13, 2020
Charming, wry road adventure in a simpler time.
December 20, 2021
Highly enjoyable.
This is the last of the three Mr Finchley books and I am sorry to take my leave. I have enjoyed my time in his company.
This is the last of the three Mr Finchley books and I am sorry to take my leave. I have enjoyed my time in his company.
January 17, 2022
Didn’t find this third book quite as interesting.
August 20, 2022
Not my favorite of the series, but I've enjoyed the series enough to perhaps come back to them again someday.
September 29, 2025
Another great read
As always a nice book with charming stories an easy read that takes you back to a much nicer life when things were moving at a slower but idyllic pace
As always a nice book with charming stories an easy read that takes you back to a much nicer life when things were moving at a slower but idyllic pace
June 11, 2023
Such fun!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews