Three Men in a Boat: Jerome Jerome

`One might have imagined that the British Empire was in danger. The Standard spoke of me as a menace to English letters; and the Morning Post as an example of the sad results to be expected from the over-education of the lower orders...` Jerome K. Jerome

When Three Men in a Boat, a jaunty account of a boating trip down the Thames, was first published in 1889, it became a huge overnight success with the paying public despite the barrage of criticism in the press.

It`s the knockabout story of three impressionable young clerks, J., George and Harris, who climb aboard a skiff in the company of a fox-terrier called Montmorency. Originally intended to be a travel guide, it somehow turned into an outstanding comic novel and a runaway hit that still has legs. It`s never been out of print since.

The good-natured jokes and comic set-pieces remain as fresh today as when they were first penned. The gags cover entirely random subjects, including hazardous towropes, the whys and wherefores of late-Victorian suburban life, and the problem of trying to get into a tin of pineapple chunks without an opener. This is a comic gem that brings to life memories of a lost era of innocence and it regularly makes lists of the funniest books of all time.