The Good Companions

This warm, sprawling novel follows three restless people who abandon their ordinary lives and, almost by chance, join a struggling troupe of travelling entertainers. There is Jess Oakroyd, a Yorkshire joiner fed up with home; Miss Elizabeth Trant, a spinster who inherits a little money and craves adventure; and Inigo Jollifant, a young schoolmaster with a gift for songs. Together they rescue a down-at-heel concert party and take to the road across the English provinces. J. B. Priestley fills the pages with humor, affection, and a keen sense of everyday lives, and the book’s huge success made him famous overnight in 1929. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers the whole journey.