Three men in a boat: to say nothing of the dog

Ever since watching the BBC version of Three Men in a Boat, featuring Griff Rhys Jones, Dara Ó Briain, and Rory McGrath, I have been meaning to pick up a copy to read. I was therefore delighted to find a copy in the local charity shop last week for just 80p.

In this book Jerome K. Jermone tells the story of a boat trip along the river Thames with his two friends George and Harris and Montmorency, the dog. It’s a delightful old fashioned tale of the time, which in numerous parts diverts off into some other event that JKJ has been reminded of. The style of writing pulls you very much into the journey with them, I just found it slightly annoying that the version I had didn’t include any kind of a map of the Thames so that you could see their progress (or lack of it!) Certainly reading the book has made me see why the three (Rhys Jones, Ó Briain and McGrath) were chosen for the BBC version.

I have to admit that it too me a while at the beginning of the book to realise that Montmorency was a dog – I’m not used to speech from animals – but after this initial period of confusion I completely fell in love with the journey and was quite sad when it all came to an end. If you saw the TV version then I’d thoroughly recommend reading the original.