In Paris on business, mild-mannered clerk Mr Finchley rescues a young fish-thief from a violent political rally and tumbles into new adventures in the second of Victor Canning’s comic trilogy - Mr Finchley Goes to Paris (1938).

It’s a rose-tinted world: the villains are gentlemen, bad guys wears false moustaches, and escapes are borne down knotted bedsheets. Mr Finchley rescues a caterpillar, throws punches in a street brawl, engages in a rowing race, overcomes his natural hesitancy, and most importantly learns to see the lovely Mrs Crantell for who she is, not who he expects her to be.

…you can’t stick a pin through a woman and neatly label her as you can a moth. (1160)

What’s missing is the delightful evocation of countryside which Canning created with such levity and love in the preceding book Mr Finchley Discovers His England (1934). Despite the continental setting, the main characters in Mr Finchley Goes to Paris are English - giving the book little French flavour.

Is Mr Finchley’s world too sugary? It is! But it was written and published in the dark milieu before World War Two and would have been a spot of sweet escapism. And it still is. There are moments of darkness in the novel: a mention of eugenics, the political rallies, and the deaths and social betrayal which poison the villain, but Canning does not loiter on these. The focus is the awakening of Mr Finchley’s heart and his relationship with the boy he rescues.

“I’d grow some roots, that’s what I’d do. I’d go back to England, buy a farm, get a good foreman to help me and I’d make a place for myself in my own country.” (1576)

Mr Finchley returns to countryside explorations in the third and final volume Mr Finchley Takes to the Road.

Many thanks to Farrago and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

Mr Finchley Discovers His England by Victor Canning