Three Men In A Boat

In 2002 myself and my partner moved to a village near Windsor, in east Berkshire. We’ve a lovely house, in a nice neighbourhood and we quickly became very happy here. For me there is an added bonus to the location. The house is a short stroll from a pub called The Royal Stag, which Jerome K Jerome mentioned in my favourite book, Three Men In A Boat. I really love coincidences like that, you see.

Three Men In A Boat, To Say Nothing Of The Dog (to give the novel its full, quirky title), is a hilarious and touching story of a boating holiday undertaken along the River Thames. Jerome has a fantastic way with anecdotes and comic set-pieces, but it is not only with the plentiful mishaps that occur during the journey that these are shown. Jerome effortlessly digresses from the main narrative to make more general comic observations on the world. He then eases the reader back to the journey itself.

The novel was first published in 1889, but one of its most remarkable qualities is just how timelessly it reads. Putting aside a few obviously dating period details, the book could almost have been written last week. It’s influence is considerable, though I personally rather disapprove of the recent television tie-ins and various attempts at theatrical dramatisations.

For the real genius of Three Men… lies not with the action but within Jerome’s ever witty mind. This can only be brought across effectively on the printed page. His riffs about the difficulties of putting a framed picture up on a wall, the construction of an Irish stew, or the challenges of learning the Scottish bagpipe are hilarious and charming.

We could do with books like Three Men… being published today. But who, if anyone, could be the Jerome K Jerome of the 21st century? I feel that his influence today can actually be most keenly felt in the humour of stand-up comedy star Michael McIntyre. The charming, observational style of McIntyre is reminiscent of Jerome at his best. Both men manage to make razor-sharp comic observations while rarely straying anywhere near territory that is in genuinely cruel.

For instance, in one of his less-celebrated works, a collection of droll essays entitled Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow, Jerome writes about newly-born babies. “There are various methods by which you may achieve ignominy and shame,” he begins. “By murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterward depositing their bodies in the water companies’ reservoir, you will gain much unpopularity in the neighbourhood of your crime, and even robbing a church will get you cordially disliked, especially by the vicar.”

However, he concludes, “To drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby ‘it’.” Amusingly, Jerome dedicated that book to his pipe. A sequel was published 12 years later, but we should not be surprised by the lengthy gap between volumes, after all Jerome once said: “I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”

As well as my local pub, I’ve enjoyed a few other coincidences with the author of Three Men… over the years. When I wrote for the men’s lifestyle magazine Loaded, I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that the original editorial team were big fans of Jerome. Three Men In A Boat had influenced their fondness for a jolly jape that developed into a caper that would play well on the printed page. Three lads on a boat, they might have said. I have written a few articles for The Idler, whose namesake title Jerome had edited in Victorian times.

Three Men In A Boat is still popular around the world. (It used to be enormously popular in Russia for some reason.) No wonder someone at the original publisher said: “I cannot imagine what becomes of all the copies of that book I issue. I often think the public must eat them.”

The original 'Three Men' - from left to right Carl Hentschel (Harris), George Wingrave (George) and Jerome K. Jerome (J).

I must say I wouldn’t go so far as eating a copy of it, but I have been known to pop to my local to flick through the book’s pages over a Diet Coke or two. Cheers, Jerome!

This post first appeared on the weblog of Norman Geras: normblog

Chas Newkey-Burden is a journalist and celebrity biographer from Windsor, UK.

He has written 37 books, 15 of them biographies. He also he co-wrote with Julie Burchill, Not in My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy, here is a sample chapter. He is a bimonthly columnist for Jewish News.

He is a radio broadcaster, with a regular newspaper review on BBC Radio London.

He writes the official Arsenal annuals and official Arsenal miscellany, amongst many other titles.

He wrote about Heston Blumenthal and why he blogs about Israel for Beat.

more can found about Jerome K Jerome here: The Jerome K Jerome Society

You can get ‘Three Men in a Boat’ from all good bookseller including Amazon

Tagged as: chas new, chas newkey-burden, issue 12, jerome k jerome, julie burchill, norman geras, normblog, the royal stag, three men in a boat, windsor