Escapism is I think one of the most alluring features of the novel. From the perspective of 2013 the Bulldog Drummond novels of Herman Cyril McNeile, (aka Sapper), are certainly escapism. The world they portray never really existed although the precepts and social mores displayed in Sapper's writings were undoubtedly a feature of a certain stratum of British society.
They are, "Boys Own," adventure stories, rattling good yarns. Spiffing tales of daring do. You know from the outset that Hugh Drummond MC will be successful in his fight against his protagonists, no matter what the odds. Perhaps therein lies some of the joy of these novels. Some might say that they are not politically correct in our increasingly sanitised world, but echoing what I am sure Bulldog Drummond would have retorted I would say to that, tommy rot!
I must have been nine or ten whenever I started to read these books, moving on to them from the works of W. E. Johns. I seem to remember unearthing a few from a box stored under a bed in my paternal grandmother's house. Presumably they must have been bought for my father or his brother in the 1930's.
Recently I saw an audio copy of , "The Third Round," in the local library. I could not resist borrowing it and dipping in to its cocoon of comforting escapism. It did not disappoint.
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