The Good Companions

I was checking on Iplayer radio the other night after I'd caught up the the Samuel Pepys readings from Woman's Hour and found The Good Companions.

And I was straight back to sitting on a train going from home to my first job in Preston.  Being plonked down among thousands of books in the headquarters library of the county was like dying and going to heaven.  My pick of whatever they had. 

Priestley's The Good Companions was probably unfashionable to read even then but I loved it.  The train journeys passed in a flash and sometimes I resented getting to the destination because I wanted to go on reading. 

I've read many books that I wouldn't dream of going back to, some by very eminent writers, but I've reread this book so many times over the years.  A battered copy sits on my shelves and last night I pulled it out, after I'd listened to two episodes and started reading again.

The radio version is worth listening to for Philip Jackson if nothing else.