Pilgrim's Diary

If you ever like to indulge in a portion of old-world tranquillity, which is so well suited to sunny afternoons, doing nothing and telling funny stories, then you have rightly reached for the short stories of the English writer J. K. Jerome. His Pilgrim's Diary is ideal reading for those who like to prepare their own trips and don't need to be fully catered for by travel agents. The linguistic and situational humour of the book is based on a comparison of two cultures, in this case German and English. J. K. Jerome was born in England in 1859, the son of a lay preacher. The Czech-sounding name Klapka was given after the Hungarian revolutionary Gyorgy Klapka, with whom the family was friends. In 1889, he brought a manuscript entitled The Story of the Thames to the editors of Home Chimes. Thus was born the magazine series, the book version of which we know as the famous Three Men in a Boat (not to mention the dog), which was later given a sequel under the title Three Men on a Tour.