WRITTEN FOR AMUSEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21570, 16 November 1933, Page 13

WRITTEN FOR AMUSEMENT

J. B. PRIESTLEY'S 1 THE GOOD COMPANIONS' Necessity is always said to be the mother of invention, and there are certainly few of our modern mechanisms that would be in existence had it not been for necessity, whether a pressing need for the invention itself or a pressing need for finance on the part of ib® inventor. . J. B. Priestley, whose world-famous novel ‘ The Good Companions ’ has recently been produced in film form by Gaumont-British, and will be screening at the Grand Theatre on Friday week, admits that ha commenced writing it purely for his own amusement. Travelling one day in the North of England, he entered into a conversation with a fellow passenger in his railway carriage, and so impressed was he with the man that he decided forthwith to amuse himself by writing a story with that man as one of the characters. Pago by page as he compiled his manuscript his interest in the tale and its people increased,till he decided to carry on and make a novel of it. Then he could see that it would not be fair to snob excellent characters as those lie had introduced to bind them down to the length of an ordinary . novel, for that would give him little scope for their development. Once again personal amusement was the deciding factor, and he carried writing, never expecting to have the marathon novel published. Two hundred and sixty-five thousand words was the ultimate counting—about five times tbe_ length of an ordinary novel—but this did not deter the Messrs .Heineman of the Windmill Press, Surrey, and their faith in the story has been more than justified. That Mr Priestley’s amusement has become everybody’s amusement has been evidenced by the tremendous sales of the novel, and now that a motion picture has been produced from it there will scarcely be anyone in the world who will not know and share the free-and-easy friendships of ‘The Good Companions.’