Floating my boat ... Jerome country on the Thames at Windsor. Photograph: Martin Godwin
When I say that I am a huge fan of Jerome K Jerome, I really mean it. For instance, while we were house hunting in Windsor, Eton and the surrounding areas, my boyfriend was taken aback by my strident enthusiasm for a house we viewed in Datchet. It was only once the contracts had been exchanged that I admitted that a considerable amount of my enthusiasm was down to the fact that it was a stone's throw from a pub called The Royal Stag, which Jerome K Jerome mentioned in his hilarious travelogue Three Men In A Boat.
I see that Rodney Bewes is performing another one-man theatre show based on Jerome's writings. I've not seen it but I cannot say that any previous adaptations of Jerome's books, be they on stage or the small or big screen, have captured the charm of his writing. For me, that charm is not just in his effortless and hilarious way with anecdotes, but also in the striking timelessness of his writing. A few obvious period details aside, the witty, all-male caper-filled Three Men In A Boat could have been written last week. Indeed, when I wrote for Loaded, it didn't surprise me one bit to learn that the team that launched the magazine were Jerome devotees, given their fondness for a jolly jape. I later wrote for The Idler, whose namesake title Jerome had edited in Victorian times. I was thrilled by the connection.
If you enjoyed Three Men In A Boat, It's worth taking a look at some of Jerome's lesser-known works, and the best place to start is Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow. Published in 1886, it is a set of droll essays on everything from being in love, to memory and babies. On the latter topic, he writes: "There are various methods by which you may achieve ignominy and shame. By murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterward depositing their bodies in the water companies' reservoir, you will gain much unpopularity in the neighbourhood of your crime, and even robbing a church will get you cordially disliked, especially by the vicar."
However, he concludes, "To drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby 'it'." He dedicated the book to his pipe. A less succesful sequel was published 12 years later. Why the delay? Well, this is the man who said "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
Speaking of sequels, the follow-up to his floating travelogue was called Three Men On The Bummel. If you've been put off by unfavourable comparisons between this and its predecessor, think again. True, as an overall piece of work, 'Boat is better and more unified than 'Bummel. But some of the vignettes in the latter are the funniest Jerome ever wrote, with everything from animals, bicycles, hosepipes and German culture being milked for all their comic potential in his trademark genial style.
So, having got my house near The Royal Stag, did I find myself going the whole hog and popping down there with my copy of Three Men In A Boat to re-read the relevant chapter inside the pub? Oh, naturally.
Can you imagine, though, what great value he must have been in person down the pub? You'd just have to have lined up the drinks, sat back and let him entertain you royally all evening. These days, it is another English author with the initials JK who grabs our attention. But for me, you can't beat Jerome.
