The Good Companions

Jess Oakroyd is a middle-aged factory worker, Elizabeth Trant is the aimless daughter of a recently deceased colonel, and Inigo Jollifant is a bored schoolmaster. The three of them, unhappy with the directions of their lives, each strike out on journeys to clear their minds and do something new. After a picaresque opening in which each of these three characters engages in various adventures, they all happen to cross paths with the Dinky Doos, a “concert party”—a type of traveling musical vaudeville show—who feel like their act needs to be shaken up. They all join forces to form a new act called the Good Companions, and set out to make their fortune on the road in an era where radio and the motion picture were becoming larger and larger features of the cultural milieu. The Good Companions, J. B. Priestley’s third novel, was a hugely popular success that catapulted him to national fame. The plot is light and airy and the characters are upbeat and charming. Priestley, a Yorkshire native, writes in dialect for any character not speaking in Received Pronunciation, giving the principal characters, and the people they meet, an authentic feel as the troupe travels across the English countryside.