Lunchtime read: Venusberg

It is hard not to think of Scoop with this story about a journalist becoming a foreign correspondent. Although this is described on the back as being wildly funny in places and you can only guess that either that is to come or the level of what it took to make you laugh in the 1930s was quite different.

As the main character Lushington packs his bags and heads for the Baltics he leaves behind a girlfriend who has fallen in love with an old school friend of the foreign correspondents. Where the chance for humour comes from is the fact that the country he is heading for is also the place his love rivals has settled in.

Boarding the boat the adventures start with an exiled Russian aristocrat and a couple of Austrians, one of which Lushington gets the chance to take to his cabin.

Waiting for it to really get going. Maybe tomorrow…