I’m a member of a book club which meets every month to discuss a novel chosen by one of the members. I originally joined the club to broaden my reading experience. Left to my own devices I tend to end up reading Science Fiction.

This month’s book choice is a good example of this in action. I have already read three HG Wells novels; The War of the Worlds, the Time Machine, and First Men on the Moon. I think it’s easy to spot the theme here! However I didn’t realise that HG Wells also did comedy very well.

I would never have chosen to read “The History of Mr Polly”. I wouldn’t have got past the title, it simply sounds too boring to me. What a mistake that was! The History of Mr Polly is one of the most enjoyable books I have read for a long time. It’s a mixture of PG Wodehouse and the ‘Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin’.

Mr Polly is a likable but flawed character who ends up performing a heroic deed despite also being a coward. He manages to vanquish his enemy in some hilarious scenes by doing a lot of running away!

The story involves a mid-life crisis which Mr Polly decides to solve with “a spot of arson and suicide”. The suicide attempt is abandoned when Mr Polly discovers cutting your throat with a razor hurts!

The book starts with Mr Polly thoroughly bored with life to the point of contemplating suicide, yet ends with his life completely changed in a really excellent ‘happily ever after’ ending.

The theme resonates with Internet Marketing theories covering Positive Mental Attitude and the current vogue for the ‘Law of Attraction’. HG Wells sums it up in chapter 9 – The Potwell Inn;

“But when a man has once broken through the paper walls of everyday circumstance, those unsubstantial walls that hold so many of us securely imprisoned from the cradle to the grave, he has made a discovery. If the world does not please you, you can change it. Determine to alter it at any price, and you can change it altogether.”

John McNally