JEROME KLAPKA JEROME (1859-I927). Best known for his timeless comic novel Three Men a Boat, Jerome was a popular figure whose long and varied career encom passed London's theatrical and literary scenes.
Jerome was born in Walsall in 1859, the son of an unsuccessful ironmnonger and evangelical preacher. He shined his unusual second name from an exiled Hungarian senend with who,,, his father was acquamted. The moved to London's East End when Jerome was quite young and he attended Marylebone Grammar School When he was fourteen he left school to become railwayclerk, the first in a long line of jobs that induded acting, teaching and journalisim...
Some time after their eventful trip on the river, chronicled in Three Men in a Boat, the same three men suffer a renewed attack of itchy feet and decide to take off on a "bummel".
Their jaunt takes them away from the confines of domestic routine and, with a tandem and a bicycle, out to the Black Forest. The culture they encounter as they cycle round Germany comes as something of a surprise to them and they get into a few scrapes.
As they make their way, George, Harris and J. learn how to cope with perilous tasks such as purchasing a cushion, taking a bicycle off a train, map-reading in the mountains and even crossing the road. This account of their adventures offers no advice on how to travel around Germany, but it does provide hours of hilarious classic comedy.
