Fellow Passenger

by Geoffrey Household

Claudio Howerd-Wolferstan is neither a communist nor a spy. Yet he breaks into a top-security Government hostel to retrieve the family treasure.

With a spot secured on the wanted lists of both the British police and Russian communist leaders, he is forced to run from a charge of high treason. A master of disguise, he bluffs his way out of many a dangerous situation and outwits his pursuers. But how long can his luck last?

The speed of Claudio's transformations from Spanish sailor to chimney-sweep, from elephant trainer to Indian guitarist give the chase a comical breathlessness. It is easy to understand why FELLOW PASSENGER is one of Household's own favourites.

Genres: British Literature

256 pages, Paperback

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.