A Nice Friendly Town
If you demand a cliff-hanger ending to Chapter One of your thriller, then Henry Calvin is your man and A Nice Friendly Town your book. The first chapter ends as two thugs break into a bedroom in a hotel in Glasgow, pluck the sleeping occupant out of bed, and heave him out of the window. The bedroom, incidentally, is on the sixth floor …
This book has another claim to fame. The young man is so unceremoniously awoken is, so far as we know, the first plumber ever to have been the hero-narrator of a crime – or any other – novel. His name is Andy Chivers and he has come from his native Forfar to the wicked city to try to sell his flange-spreading jointing invention. He would also not be averse to meeting up again with Jennifer, the sweet Forfar lass who deserted her home town for art school in Glasgow, and is now heading straight for damnation – whither innocent Andy would dearly like to accompany her. Instead of which he is thrown out of windows, pushed under buses, and made the victim of many other indignities.
Calvin is at his uproarious best as Andy discovers the joys (and dangers) of alcohol (and other sins), and gets more and more involved with Jennifer, her cuddly roommate Vickie, and the gang of thugs who are bent on his destruction for reasons which become sufficiently clear in the author’s good time.
This book has another claim to fame. The young man is so unceremoniously awoken is, so far as we know, the first plumber ever to have been the hero-narrator of a crime – or any other – novel. His name is Andy Chivers and he has come from his native Forfar to the wicked city to try to sell his flange-spreading jointing invention. He would also not be averse to meeting up again with Jennifer, the sweet Forfar lass who deserted her home town for art school in Glasgow, and is now heading straight for damnation – whither innocent Andy would dearly like to accompany her. Instead of which he is thrown out of windows, pushed under buses, and made the victim of many other indignities.
Calvin is at his uproarious best as Andy discovers the joys (and dangers) of alcohol (and other sins), and gets more and more involved with Jennifer, her cuddly roommate Vickie, and the gang of thugs who are bent on his destruction for reasons which become sufficiently clear in the author’s good time.
Published:
1967 London, Hutchinson1969 London, Arrow
Comments:
“The opening should appeal to all who have been tempted to chuck a plumber out of a sixth floor window, and Calvin’s unforced, un-imitative, modern humour builds it into a short, sharp Scottish gang-fight with naughty episodes.”Punch
"There's nothing routine about the skillful way Mr. Calvin follows his innocent through the streets of a not-so-friendly city. I liked this.
Evening Standard
"Truly funny yet tense."
The Sun
"Relaxed Narrative, dry and light, with startling interruptions, altogether a refreshingly different read."
Northern Echo
Copyright 2025 The Estate of Clifford Hanley