Three Men in a Boat: Collins Classics

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859 - 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat and several other novels. Jerome was inspired by his older sister Blandina's love for the theatre and he decided to try his hand at acting in 1877, under the stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a repertory troupe that produced plays on a shoestring budget, often drawing on the actors' own meager resources - Jerome was penniless at the time - to purchase costumes and props. After three years on the road with no evident success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided that he had enough of stage life and sought other occupations. He tried to become a journalist, writing essays, satires and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years, he was a school teacher, a packer and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with On the Stage - and Off (1885), a comic memoir of his experiences with the acting troupe, followed by Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886), a collection of humorous essays which had previously appeared in the newly founded magazine, Home Chimes, the same magazine that would later serialize Three Men in a Boat.

Rest assured many of the book's droll episodes are retained. Moreover, Jerome loved a humorous digression, so this troupe's zany deviations seem true to his spirit, as well as refreshing... This touring production would perhaps like to be hailed as the next 39 Steps and land a West End transfer.
Charm is a quality that is undervalued these days in the theatre, and indeed everywhere else. This adaptation has it in spades.