Lovejoy Omnibus - Jonathan Gash ****

By Brian Clegg

Inspired by rediscovering the old Lovejoy TV series from the 1980s it seemed a good time to revisit the original novels. Sad to say, Jonathan Gash’s books are almost all out of print, which is a shame. I started with this omnibus of his books: The Firefly Gadroon, The Sleepers of Erin and The Gondola Scam (the sixth, seventh and eighth in the series).

For those who are unfamiliar with either version, Lovejoy is an archetypal loveable rogue – an antiques dealer not above forgery, never pays his bills if he can get away with it, permanently short of money and a serial womaniser. The first of the books in the collection (Firefly Gadroon) is somewhat rough in the writing, but the other two are decent. Along the way the reader finds out a fair amount about antiques and the extremely dodgy dealings of the antiques trade. (Gash, real name John Grant, was a doctor, but seemed to know his stuff.)

There are two distinct differences between the books and the TV shows. On TV we get the inevitable regular characters, where the books only really have Lovejoy and his barker (antique hunter) Tinker every time – there are other characters who crop up now and then, but they are not central to the story. This is particularly notable with Jane Felsham, played entertainingly by a young Phylis Logan in the TV show, who is just another dealer in the books, but Lady Jane, Lovejoy’s benefactor, on TV. 

The other difference is that the books are much murkier than the TV equivalent. Tinker is a drunk on TV, but a raffish drunk, rather than the tramp-like character in the books. And the literary Lovejoy, while still a rogue, is less loveable – the books are a lot more violent in general and Lovejoy often kills someone (though usually not with intent) and is frequently in a state of sustained terror, unlike the genial Ian McShane character on screen.

Although flawed and in some ways dated, Lovejoy was a genuinely different crime fiction character. Given the way that we get so many boilerplate crime novels these days, it’s a real shame that these distinctive books have gone out of print.

You can buy The Lovejoy Omnibus used from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com 

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.