Classic Canning

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store...From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is plunged into a series of the most astonishing and extraordinary adventures. His rural adventure takes him gradually westward through the English countryside and back, via a smuggling yacht, to London.

An ebullient Mr Finchley is about to propose marriage to a lady he had rescued from mishap, when he is sent to Paris by his firm. There he manages to upset a boat, adopt a stray orphan, and get himself kidnapped. The fine tangle he gets into takes some unravelling! Only when eventually back in London does he complete the proposal of marriage that was interrupted at the start. This gentle comedy trilogy was a runaway best seller on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today.

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 he sets off alone 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. This gentle comedy trilogy was a runaway bestseller on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today.

An exuberant, life-affirming novel of taking your chances. After a spur-of-the-moment day out with his boss’s daughter in celebration of his 21st birthday, Polycarp Jarvis decides to quit his Bristol-based junior government worker job. Newly emboldened, he embarks on an erratic, engaging, and not always strictly legal course through life. Going from bus driver for the Red Dragon Motor Company to co-owner of a flying company, to seller of quack medicines, and eventually to media tycoon, Polycarp makes much of his luck along the way.

How far could you go living in another’s shoes? In a mid-life moment, Paul Morison travels from America to England to discover his mother’s roots. A chance encounter and an uncanny resemblance leads him to agree to assume the identity of a famous singer for a while. This gentle comic caper and love story was hugely popular on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today.  

When George, the eldest son of Matthew Silverman, announces he won’t follow in his father’s footsteps as editor of the family-owned local newspaper, the family finds itself on a course for change. The newspaper has been going for nearly 100 years. With younger brother Alexander and sisters Loraine and Alison growing up fast, too, and gradual progress in the world around them, can Matthew do what’s best for them all?

When her employer suddenly disappears, young Grace Kirkstall finds herself accepting a new job at a new company in the same building - an oasis of tranquility off the streets of London. Ben and Helen Brown’s start-up company’s pitch is that, for a small consideration, they will help people out of their major and minor fixes. Their first big commission initiates Ben into the gentle art of housebreaking, and Helen into the mysteries of the Society for Progressive Rehabilitation.... But for Grace, it will plunge her into more danger than she could ever have imagined.

The Minerva Club might look like any other London gentlemen’s club, but behind its respectable and discreet façade, some of the most ambitious schemes for heists, money-making, and evasion of the law are being worked out. It’s an exclusive club for criminals. Entry qualification: Members must have served a prison sentence of two years minimum. Though the club’s criminal ventures don’t always go as planned…

The collected short stories of the great Victor Canning, originally written and published in the 1950s and 1960s—full of humor, charm, and in true fashion of classic crime writing. Canning’s heartwarming vignettes and clever mysteries take us from a Welsh valley to a far-off island and across the French countryside—introducing unforgettable characters and stories along the way.

Young Paul Ashcroft has travelled to the beautiful French Riviera. His goal: to make a lot of money. His methods: more than questionable. Following his motto "the world owes me a living", he steals and swindles—using what he needs for himself and passing on the rest to those less fortunate. After coming across the beautiful Villa Triton, he disguises himself as M. Durobat, a But just as Paul's schemes and tricks start to be fruitful and he falls in love with the intriguing Elise Benoit, the real Gringo the Greek appears on the scene, ready to take on the cunning thief.