Poet's Pub

by Eric Linklater

When an Oxford poet named Saturday Keith assumes control of the Pelican Pub, what he desires most is the peace and freedom to craft his poems without being disturbed. This is the least of what happens, for the local watering hole soon becomes an out-and-out attraction for various eccentric characters ranging from uncouth rogues to members of academia.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Humor, British Literature, Modern Classics, Poetry, 20th Century

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a Welsh-born Scottish writer of novels and short stories, military history, and travel books. For The Wind on the Moon, a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for the year's best children's book by a British subject.

Reviews

[Hashim Alsughayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid reader, finding new books is a relatively easy thing to do. I listen to book recommendations from the thousand podcasts I listen to every day (Book Riot is the best one), read the many book blogs I follow, or just go on Goodreads and find a ton of new books that I will eventually add to my TBR list. So basically what I’m trying to say is that I have this area of the reader’s world covered.
But this wonderful book was different. This book was one of those, I loved both the title and the cover, sort of books. I always wanted to read a book about a literary club or a pub and the title of this book was perfect. What I didn’t know is the history behind this important book.
It was one of the original ten titles that Allen Lane choose for his first penguin books. In addition to Hemingway’s’ A Farewell to Arms, Eric Linklater’s Poet’s Pub was one of the first Penguin originals that the British people read and enjoyed.
One other thing that intrigued me to read this book, was that it was titled “A literary Cheers” and I love Cheers.
So I was all set for a good (maybe) great read and Linklater did not disappoint.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poet's Pub is a novel by Eric Linklater first published in England in 1929. Linklater was a Scottish writer born in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. He wrote novels and short stories, military history, and travel books. He won the 1944 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for the year's best children's book by a Brtish author, The Wind On The Moon.Linklater's greatest success came in the early years of his career, altogether though he was to publish 23 novels, three volumes of stories, two books of verse, ten plays, three works of autobiography, and another 23 books of essays and histories. I had never heard of Linklater or any of his books, but browsing through a bookstore one day I came upon a display of Penguin Classics and there it was. I saw it was one of the first ten Penguin books ever published so I just had to have it. I loved it.

Poet's Pub is the amusing story of the Pelican Pub in Downish, England, run by (guess what) a poet named Saturday Keith. Our hero got the unusual name of Saturday because he was a 7th son. What makes this even more unusual is that each of the other sons was born on a different day of the week, they however were not named Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc., they had perfectly normal names like Colin, Ranald, Patrick, you get the idea. When Saturday's mother became pregnant for the seventh time his father was certain the baby would be another son and would be born on a Saturday. Saturday's father says:

"He'll be born on a Saturday," he said, "and that will make a good deed for every day in the week. I've worked harder than God, for He rested on the seventh. If the boy's dropped on a Saturday I'll call him Saturday, by God I will!"

His father gets his wish and our main character gets the name "Saturday". Our story begins with Saturday in bed rather dejected because the reviews for his new book of poetry "February Fill-dyke" are in the papers and are rather scathing. As he is wondering what he will do next his friend Quentin Cotton comes to see him and offers him a job as manager of his mother's newest pub "The Pelican" in Downish. He tells Saturday that his mother would be thrilled to have a poet keeping her inn, this particular inn is the seventh one she has bought and the best.

The next chapter we find Saturday doing a very fine job of running the inn which has come to be known as "Poet's Pub" and is always or almost always full. Here we find a wonderful set of characters including a beautiful but mysterious maid; his friend Quentin who is a novelist; a professor and his daughter; an annoying book collector; Holly the bartender who has invented a blue cocktail; a woman who had sailed a boat by herself around the Baltic; and race car driver among others. Most of his guest seem to have written books about the things they've done and the places they've been. Saturday thinks to himself:

"Does everyone go to Central Asia or Pekin? Old Waterhouse's book is the twenty-fourth autographed copy I've been given in six months. You read mine and I'll read yours. They might at least cut their pages first. And listening to them is like a geography lesson. I believe I have the only sensible job in the country, for I stay where I'm wanted and I haven't written a word for a week.

Saturday is thankful for his guest Lady Porlet:

"who had never written anything (for she had rheumatic finger-joints) and never read anything (for she had no brains) and never been out of England, for she had no interest in foreign parts."

As his guests sit in the Elizabethan hall we hear bits of their separate conversations:

"The war was a blessed time for us older men in that we could tell more lies with more assurance of telling the truth than at any other period since---"

"Since the war before the last," suggested Keith.

"Peace is exciting, because when the country's at peace its citizens can think for themselves, think selfishly, and have adventures of their own. When there's a war no one has time for anything but the national adventure."

"Feng was the most fascinating person I've ever painted," Miss Scrabster was remarking. "He made improper proposals to me through an interpreter. They call him the Christian general..."


Eventually Saturday begins a new epic poem titled "Tellus Will Proceed," Tellus is the earth, the captain is the Flying Dutchman who sometimes thinks he is God; and the passengers are talking rats. Here are some of the lines from his new poem:

"'God save the Queen' a faithful people said,
When Henry took Nan Bullen to his bed."

"'You're right,' said grandpa rat, 'that love is blind
When it seeks inspiration from behind.'"

I don't know much about poetry but I was certainly glad the entire poem didn't get into the novel. I don't want to tell you too much more about the plot, there is a possible Russian spy or two; a couple of thieves, one who may have stolen the epic poem, the other a fantastic invention, an extremely funny car chase and a shooting, which reminds me of possibly my favorite lines in the novel:

"I'm glad you didn't shoot Mr. Wesson. I think he's an interesting man."

"He's a sportsman in his own way. Do you know, he never complained about being shot at? He seemed to take it as quite an ordinary occurrence."

"Of course," said Joan. "He's an American."

I would almost give the book five stars, but it wasn't long enough for me, I will definitely read it again. Oh, in case you're wondering, I've never been shot at. :-}

[Anthony Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up second hand for a couple of quid. It's a 1947 Penguin reprint. I think there are quite a few typos in it. That aside, I thought it a story brimming over with joie de vivre, in keeping with the only other Linklater novel I've read, the optimistic 'Private Angelo'. To me, it was a kind of fantasy pastoral, an affectionate caricature of upper class England between the wars, a sort of Wodehouse world (including his masterly construction), but one that takes more time to explore the fictional individual reality behind some of the caricatures it creates. And the dialogue is tremendous

It also strikes me as a novel written by a young man (which Linklater was) as its style has a certain lexical exuberance and a turn of phrase that delights. I encountered several words that caught my attention: 'apocopation', 'marmoreal', 'sodality', and the highly technical 'mesentery'. There was also 'fritinancy' which the OED lists as 'fritiniency' the last instance of which is 1656. I sent the OED an updated example of its use. But I don't think I will ever have occasion to use it, though swallows nesting in my eaves are currently fritinating.

Very enjoyable escapist read.

[Danada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun! A rollicking good romp as they say. Reminiscent of Wodehouse.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joyous romp, like an Ealing comedy in print. Little England, larger than life characters, sparkling dialogue and plenty of laughs. Excellent

[Keeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I look at the Penguin shelf at my local bookstore, I'm not expecting to find an author I've never heard of. So when I spotted this one, I gave it a try. After a slow first chapter it blossomed into one of the best comic novels I've read in years. It felt like Kingsley Amis but less cynical, or an odd half-way point between Wodehouse and Anthony Powell. More serious thought than Wodehouse, and a crazier plot than Powell. Now I'm going to have to go find Linklater's other novels. Good on Penguin for an arresting cover design.

[Bruce Amaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and a 20th century Canterbury Tales of characters in English pubs as English life once was before 1939.

[Lisa's book adventures · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this one.
Had a smile on my face when i finished it.
It was funny without being written funny if that's the right way to put it.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read! One of the few books (if not the only one) that made me laugh out loud. Wonderful British humour that sneaks up on you during regular conversation and makes you pause to smile.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woodehouse's characters without the snappy dialogue.

[Ollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat irritatingly written book.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

While trawling the internet searching for interesting books to read (Something I have done increasingly more of due to COVID) I came across this hidden gem. First published in 1929 it was chosen by Allen Lane as one of the first ten books used by him to successfully launch the Penguin Books line in 1935. Penguin revolutionised publishing by issuing inexpensive paperbacks, which they sold for sixpence, bringing high-quality fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. Despite this for years Poet’s Pub was out of print.

Poet's Pub is the charming story of a pub, the Pelican in the fictional village of Downish, England. It is run by a some what average poet, Saturday Keith. So named because his mother had had six other children, each born on a different day of the week except Saturday. So she said if her next child was born on Saturday she would name it after that day. The guests staying at the pub are a mix of English and American travellers: a professor and his daughter, a retired colonel and his wife, a businessman, and a book collector. The ironic thing here, considering it’s publication history, is that in Poet’s Pub Eric Linklater was taking a gentle comic swipe at bibliophiles.

Poet’s Pub is very much of an age, and that for me is its charm. I love books like this, and of this period. I love the language and the dialogue. ‘No, said Joan, struggling. I’m not going to kiss you. I’m not going to. I haven’t had time to think. And besides, it’s so early. It isn’t four o’clock.’ - Brilliant stuff!

This could be an ealing comedy, The second half of the story, which involves thefts, kidnappings, misunderstandings, a not too dastardly villain and a chase involving a Bentley, an Isotta Fraschini, a Morris-Cowley and a ‘BlueBird’ charabanc is pure Ealing. In fact the book was made into a film, but not by Ealing. It was released by General Film Distributers (later known as J Arthur Rank). It’s difficult to track down but at the time of writing this review it is available on You Tube. But before you watch it seek out this wonderful book. It’s a delight and thoroughly recommended.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sweet little caper will delight all Anglophiles, but personally I found it only moderately amusing. In spite of the its title the setting is not so much a pub as a very posh boutique hotel complete with tennis courts and other amenities. This establishment is run by an aspiring poet by the odd name of Saturday Keith on behalf of Lady Mercy Cotton, who is the mother of Saturday's best friend Quentin. The background of Saturday and Quentin is rather laboriously sketched in the initial chapters, and Linklater then has to introduce a rather large cast of characters before the "plot" gets going. In due course Saturday falls in love with one of the guests staying at his pub, Joan Benbow, while Quentin falls in love with Nelly Bly, who has been hired as a chamber maid and passes herself off as a Russian spy out of sheer cheek. Eventually Joan gets kidnapped by Mr Wesson, a false collector of rare books, who makes off with the papers of another pub guest, von Buren, who has made a revolutionary discovery about oil extraction. Nelly chases them, followed by Quentin and Saturday who have requisitioned the charabanc of another party for the purpose, believing that what Wesson has stolen is actually the manuscript Saturday's latest poem. After a car accident Wesson and Joan end up by pure coincidence seeking refuge in Saturday's ancestral home. No harm of course has happened to Joan, since Wesson is a gentleman even if he has engaged in illegal activities all his life, including masquerading as Thomas Hardy and other British literary lions in front of unsuspecting Midwest audiences. The second half of the book is really quite lively and I feel mean giving it only 2 stars but I know it's a book I will have forgotten by next month.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Der mäßig erfolgreiche Schriftsteller Saturday Keith bekommt die Möglichkeit, den Pelican Pub zu übernehmen. Für ihn ist es die Möglichkeit, Ideen für neue Werke zu bekommen und nebenbei etwas Geld zu verdienen. Zuerst sieht es auch so aus, als ob sein Plan aufgehen würde. Dann nehmen die Ereignisse eine ungeahnte Wendung.

Anfangs macht sich Saturday gut als Wirt und auch als Schriftsteller. Nach und nach stellt sich aber heraus, dass viele der Personen, die sich in seinem Pub aufhalten, nicht das sind, was sie zu sein scheinen. Fast jeder hat ein Geheimnis und deren Auflösungen fand ich manchmal ein wenig verwirrend. Der höfliche Ton, mit dem alles abgewickelt wurde, fand ich manchmal unpassend, gerade wenn auch in schwierigen Situationen unbedingt Konventionen eingehalten werden mussten. Das hat die Geschichte unnötig in die Länge gezogen, was bei der Kürze der Geschichte eine Leistung ist.

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere somebody called this book cut-rate Wodehouse. I think that's a little unfair. Finding a copy in a secondhand book shop some time after thoroughly enjoying Linklater's Private Angelo some time ago, I had high hopes which weren't entirely realised, but I will cut a little slack for this being an example of his very early work. There are a few continuity errors, and one or two anachronisms (did anybody else notice that Wesson never mentioned the 1.55pm train when talking to Nelly, but later in the book she recalls his complete nonchalance when apparently doing so?). However it's an enjoyable romp that prompts the odd chuckle. Linklater is an erudite and learned author, and Poet's Pub points towards his later, more polished work.

This is another case of a 3.5 star book to which it is fairer to round up to 4 stars than down to 3.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly read 100 pages then skipped to the end. It was a fine book but not enough pulling me in. I also didn’t give a shit about the characters which apparently is important. Once I realize I could care less if all the characters died then I think it’s time to put down a book. There were some beautifully written bits but somehow the book felt quite empty and quite removed. Kinda seemed like a book of out of touch “artists” and rich people. Idk. I like deeper struggles I guess. Id like to laugh or cry and this book did neither but not a bad read! A light read, just not my type currently.

[Steventhesteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally a well received comedy novel, later one of the original 10 penguin paperbacks, I came across a 1940's reprint of this in a second hand bookshop and decided to give it a crack!

Whilst it's not as "fast paced and riveting" as one of the dedications on my copy said it was, this was a light hearted, fun novel with a great sequence of multiple perspectives of the same events, some fun chase sequences and lots of extremely English humour. That is to say, jokes where Englishman are the butt.

I'd recommend this if you've enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, it's that sort of silly fun.

[Miss Dandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I started to read this book back in December 2024 and took around 60% of it into the new year. Although almost a century old, the story feels fresh and funny in a clever fashion. Linklater presents all kinds of human quirks and errors in such a delightful British way, all of them centered and grounded in a pub that's being led by a poet and houses a remarkable conglomeration of guests. Also, I found so many good quotes about human relationships and book-related matters in this novel, very relatable and thought-evoking ones alike.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nancy Pearl told me to read Poet's Pub, and between her recommendation and the delightful title, I had to give it a try. It's a difficult book to describe--for most of the book, nothing happens, and then it explodes into a delightfully absurd car chase. It feels like Waugh's humorous novels, but only faintly--the humor is subtle and terribly British. It's an enjoyable read, but a bit of an odd one.

[Flob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, written after a dreadful World War and in the midst of a grinding austerity that puts the current one to shame it is nevertheless full of joy. It seems to me that we are more miserable now than then - I don't know how a book like this could be written. So if you need cheering up you need to do no more that reach out for this book. It will do you good!

[Poetreehugger · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published 1929, so it’s an enjoyable glimpse of a setting remote in place and time. Entertaining and humorous. The list of archaic or simply fascinating words I had to look up is long: charabanc, Gioconda, marmoreally, hobbledehoy, farthingales, fritinancy…and more.
Delightful.

[Max O'Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars …. was really funny at times, there were some excellent moments, but lacked cohesion and was a bit here-and-back at times — would still recommend and will probably reread at some stage, but certainly won’t knock your socks off

[Stoic_quin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty dated, a bit Proto-Wodehouse. Of a little interest was references to Bromley !

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book!! Twists and Turns, enjoyable book to the end!! Published in 1929, still a riveting read in 2023!!

[Kathleen Vincenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful especially the chase at the end. Not as funny as a P.G. Wodehouse but quietly comic and romantic with some terrific descriptions.

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful enjoyment of words and use of language. A ridiculous plot and characters but some interesting issues raised and good fun to read.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saturday Keith (his parents' seventh son, named after the day of his birth) is a poet, but he's feeling glum after some less-than-flattering reviews of his latest book. He's quit his job at a shipping/exports company, and ends up getting set up as manager of a fancy pub/inn owned by the mother of one of his novelist-friends. As the manager of the Pelican, Keith gets to see bits of people and their lives; so do we, as readers. But it's not just ordinary daily life and love and meetings that we see: a theft at the Pelican turns the book into a madcap chase. Linklater is clever and often funny; several bits, particularly toward the end, made me laugh. He's good at dialogue and bits of conversation, and while his descriptive passages are sometimes over the top, they mostly manage to be amusing rather than annoying. This passage, in which the pub's bartender (who has invented two blue cocktails, which a guest at the inn has just christened "Oxford" and "Cambridge") mixes drinks, seems pretty representative of the book's general style:

'Anything that a lady like Miss Benbow suggests is all right, sir,' said Holly politely; and deftly poured measures of this and measures of that, crystal clear, faintly yellow and richer orange, a glass delicately poised with the rising meniscus unbroken, a drop, two drops of wormwood, a fluid once of sweetness and an ounce of twice-distilled strength...gravely, intent on his task as an alchemist seeking the elixir, the aurum potabile, Holly poured his chosen liquors into a long silver shaker, added broken fragments of ice, screwed down the top, and, like a man with the palsy, shook. His hands were clenched on either butt, his muscles were taut, his face set like a mask. And all this time his audience watched him silently as if a conjuror were at work, and where paper flags had gone in the doves of peace might emerge. (39)

Also, this made me grin, because my boyfriend and I often squabble about how, um, contrary I am:

'I like independence more than anything else. But a girl can be independent without contradicting everything she hears.'
'Not if she's honest. People talk such rubbish.' (48)

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is something of an oddity, and a book I would almost certainly never have encountered if it hadn't been brought back in to print as a Penguin Classic to celebrate its inclusion in the first ever Penguin list published in 1946. One of the ten books chosen by Allen Lane to launch his groundbreaking new approach to publishing, alongside books by Hemingway, Sayers, Christie and Compton Mackenzie, it would probably have been largely forgotten by now, but for this lucky chance. Originally published in 1929, it was the book that made Linklater's name. It's a curious, but entertaining mix of whimsy, wit, comic action and linguistic high jinks (pneumo-privative?, bingled?, marismas?). Ostensibly, the story of a (not particularly good) poet and Oxford rowing blue, Saturday Keith, who ends up running a country pub and hotel, it is also a multi-stranded narrative featuring the intertwined tales of various of his friends and guests. There's a Wodehousian element to much of the first half of the book, before a sort of Ealing Comedy takes over with a car chase through England and Scotland, featuring an open-topped charabanc, and a number of stolen cars. It's all great fun, and so unlike anything I've ever read before. Well done Penguin, for ensuring that Poet's Pub is still available for twenty-first century readers to discover and enjoy.

[Charles Moody · Rating 4 out of 5]

This spirited farce is fun from the first page to the last. The cover describes it as a “literary Cheers,” but I think a closer movie/TV comparison might be Bringing Up Baby. There are misunderstandings and a comic chase, and throughout the kind of snappy and hilarious dialogue that you can imagine Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant delivering. I was not ready for the book to end, and sorry that there wasn’t a sequel.

[Peer · Rating 1 out of 5]

setting 1920's

Very outdated novel about social life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century. Lots of references to famous people of that time. No special writing style. Not read to the end.