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'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Ripping...

... yarns.

I suspect that a fair number of wargamey, toy soldierly types are partial to the genre of fiction that goes best under the heading of 'Ripping Yarns'. I'm currently reading Andrew Martin's latest title in his excellent 'Jim Stringer' series of novels about the Yorkshire railway detective. Over nine adventures, Martin has done a clever thing with his hero, Jim Stringer. He's taken him from a disgraced footplate fireman, to railway detective in York, to temporary officer and gentleman during the Great War, and, thence, to ex-officer railway investigator. First in Mesopotamia, shortly after its change of hands from the Ottoman Empire to the British Empire, in Baghdad Railway Club, then, in the current adventure:



to post-First World War India, among the Anglo-Indian world of the railways (made most famous in fiction by Bhowani Junction, by John Masters, himself an Anglo-Indian). While reading Stringer's adventures this evening, I came to thinking about my liking for this sort of tale. I'm not entirely sure Night Train falls squarely into the Ripping Yarn category, but that class of book certainly entertains me. So, off the top of my head, I tried to think of my 'top ten' Ripping Yarns. Starting with:



1. Watkins, In the Blue Light of African Dreams - oh, glory: French Foreign Legion, ex-Great War Spads, American mercenary, an attempted crossing of the Atlantic....

2. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped! Perfect plotting, a thrilling tale that lives on.

3. Erskine Childers, Riddle of the Sands. Given an extra twist by the reader's knowledge that Childers himself lived a Ripping Yarn, which ended in front of an Irish government firing squad.

4. John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps. Tremendous! Who, after reading it, doesn't want to don an old tweed suit and take to the hills of Dumfries and Galloway! And, Buchan, like Childers, a Ripping Yarn sort of fellow himself - British intelligence officer and highly popular Governor of Canada.

5. W.E. Johns, Biggles Goes To War. Biggles and crew as mercenary pilots in the Balkans - biplanes, a beautiful woman, and straight lefts.

6. Any of the 'Mamur Zapt' series of novels by Michael Pearce. The hot, foetid streets of Cairo, Captain Gareth Owen, Head of the Secret Police, and his compelling, not to be crossed, mistress, Zeinab.

And there, I began to falter - my memory that is. So, good fellows, what else should be on this list?

11 comments:

  1. I'd gladly nominate all of Buchan. Doyle's Prof. Challenger stories rip with the best of 'em. Rogue Male perhaps?

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    1. Rogue Male - absolutely ! Forgot that one - secret hideout, evil Boche, cat's gut, rough shooting. Excellent choice, sir! The only Prof. Challenger I've read is Lost World, so I should probably hunt down the others. Any particular title you'd recommend for starters?

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    2. The Lost World is probably the best of them. The Poison Belt is good - but not what I'd call ripping. Always had a soft spot for the disintegration machine too.

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  2. Without stopping to think, the Beau Geste trilogy, King Solomans mines, Black Arrow, Treasure Island, High Road to China. There are more if i think.

    I've just been re reading some old Henty books for boys equal parts ripping yarn, military history lesson and tutorial for acting like an English gentleman.

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    1. 'King Soloman's Mines' - indeed, takes me right back to being 12 at grammar school (we still had 'sound' reading then, along with some old, and slightly odd stuff, like 'Seventy Years a Showman'. But now I'm going to have to confess that I've never read Henty.The shame !

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  3. Another vote for Buchan - and that Wells chap turned out a few good reads !

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    1. I hadn't thought about putting Wells in the Ripping Yarn bracket - does some of his stuff count? 'War in the Air' perhaps ? I don't know, what else do you reckon?

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  4. I have also enjoyed reading all the Jim Stringer books, and like the way in which the characters have developed as they have got older.

    As to Ripping Yarns ... well I agree about John Buchan's books being excellent examples of the genre, and my second favourite (my first is the 39 Steps) is Courts of the Morning.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Yes, the Jim Stringer books really are a cut above the crowd. I've slowed down in my current reading of 'Night Train', because I don't want to finish it! Yes, Buchan was a master of the genre, and I've realised that I haven't read 'Courts of the Morning'. I'll have to attend to that.

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  5. I can't believe I forgot Haggard and Henty!

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    1. Yes, and you being a young pup! Don't worry, when I was drawing up my mental list last night I was horrified at how quickly I was thinking, 'you know, that one, what was it called, who wrote it, whas was his name ???'

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