Felix Walking

Book Details:

Hardback edition published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1958. First Edition.

Sleeve notes:

We know by now (or should do) most of the things that make an Angry Young Man angry; a more interesting question is whether there is anything that makes him glad. Sally Onslow, re-encountering Felix at the point of his undistinguished departure from redbrick, was disconcerted to find that she was such an object, not so much in herself as in her office: she was: after all, a publisher’s secretary.

Of malice aforethought, she let herself be persuaded to show his novel to her boss, D.B., a Director of the well-established house of Garrett & Warner, and "notorious in a trade where sensitivity to authors’ feelings ranks almost as high as the extortion of subsidiary rights, for the callous brutality of his letters of rejection". The scheme, however, misfired; D.B. bought the book, and Sally (renamed Zara by the exuberant Felix) suddenly found her peaceful attic-dwelling life invaded and herself caught up in an unwilling and protesting participant in Felix’s drive towards publicity and fame.

For every Angry Young Man there is probably at least one young woman who spends most of her time being absolutely furious with him. So it was with Sally, longing for suburban peace and dragged in the wake of Felix’s chariot through a succession of infuriating, but hilarious crises. Felix Walking is a lively, sharply written comedy of the literary world of today, expounding no philosophy but offering plenty of good humour.

Book source:

Book Details:

Hardback edition published by Simon and Schuster, New York, 1958. First US Edition.

Sleeve notes:

They blew him up with dynamite
The cat they couldn't kill
Right up in the air he flew
He just called out Toodle-oo
Landed down in Timbuktu
And he kept on walking still! (from Felix the Cat)

Our Felix doesn't get blown up with dynamite, but he does have an explosive career trying to get Sally Onslow to marry him and trying to get his novel 'It Doesn't Mean a Thing' onto the bestseller lists.

Felix is an Angry Young Man, but there is always a wisecrack in the chip on his shoulder. He devotes equal time to breaking up Sally's childhood romance with David Lytham and to publicizing his novel. (prescription for all first novelists: Get jailed by pleading your own traffic-violation case so forcefully that you are given a psychiatric examination. Result: Your name will be on the front pages of all the daily papers and your book will get major reviews.)

Hilary Ford presents the reader with a gallery of zany Londoners in the public arts in this delightful novel. Along with our hero and heroine, we meet Trixie, the modest nymphomaniac; Douglas, who works for the BBC and collects cacophonous sound under the impression that it is modern music; Percy Finsbury, the venerable Elder Author whose Achilles heel is tickled by Felix; and D.B., Sally's editor-boss, who thinks that the only kind of French novel that makes money is the kind he'd be ashamed to publish.

Book source: