The setting is ""Wearemouth,"" a fictional blend of Plymouth and Dartmouth. We are introduced to five children who, on a walk to the cinema, pass a local landmark, the Wooden Angel, made from a ship's figurehead and stand holding hands, making a wish. The rest of the book follows their careers to see how far the wishes come true. This was the only book written by Victor Canning under the pen name Julian Forest. The time is during and immediately after the Great War, and the book tells us a great deal about social attitudes and class in a west country city of that era. It is one of the best of...

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried solicitor's clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to Margate. But Fate has other plans in store... From his abduction in a Bentley 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. This gentle comedy trilogy was a runaway bestseller on first...

Book 2 of the classic trilogy of humorous adventures 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 bestseller on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today. It has been dramatized...