Paul Gallico
A literary craftsman of warmth, wit and wonder.
Browsing through the films available on Netflix, on a rainy afternoon a few months ago, I came across ‘ Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’. The title evoked a pleasant glow of nostalgia. Mrs. Harris is one of my famous fictional characters. I thought this must the 1992 film starring Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Harris and co starring Diana Rigg, which I had seen and enjoyed several decades ago. I did a double take when I realised this movie was from 2022 and starred Lesley Manville. I immediately sat down to watch and lost myself in the story.
The movie is slow by today’s standards but Lesley Manville does a great job as the middle aged cockney London charwoman with a heart of gold. She sets her heart on owning a dress by Christian Dior and proceeds to Paris with her life’s earnings , where she meets several colourful characters and wins the day with her warmth, humour and good heartedness.
Beyond genres and labels
I first read about Mrs. Harris in a one of my dad’s Reader’s Digest Condensed Books volumes which featured “ Flowers For Mrs. Harris’ (alternate title ‘Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris’). A very slim book, it was further condensed by Readers Digest and I zoomed through it, though it was totally different from my usual fare of crime thrillers and westerns. I later chanced upon the original book in the Trivandrum Public Library and read it in it’s entirety. The Public Library also had ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow’ and ‘Mrs. Harris M.P’ which were equally delightful.
My school library had a copy of ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ , the movie version of which , featuring a standout performance by Gene Hackman, I had watched at Sreekumar Theatre. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the author of the original book was Paul Gallico. The book, a disaster epic, was totally different from the Mrs. Harris books. What characterised it was the same masterful storytelling and the ability to make the reader empathise with the characters.
I started searching for more Gallico’s and, over the years, have acquired quite a few of his books, most of which I have, since, read. What strikes one immediately is his versatility, as he deftly navigated various genres throughout his writing career. He cannot be easily typecast due to his ability to craft compelling stories across a wide range of subjects. He cannot be pigeonholed or strait jacketed into any one specific genre.
His books include the occult thrillers ‘The Hand of Mary Constable’ and ‘Too Many Ghosts’ , both dripping with atmosphere and chills, the suspenseful heist novel ‘The Zoo Gang’, the Cold War thriller ‘Ordeal By Innocence ‘, his delightful stories with animal protagonists including ‘ Scruffy’ ( a barbary ape in Gibraltar) , ‘Matilda’( the boxing kangaroo ) , ‘The Snow Goose’ ( a wounded Canada Snow Goose ) and ‘Thomasina’ ( a lovable feline).
His books ‘The Foolish Immortals’ and ‘The Small Miracle’ have a strong religious element but are written so well it did not put me off though I usually detest books on such themes. ‘ The Boy Who Invented the Bubble Gun’ and ‘The Adventures of Hiram Holliday’ feature picaresque adventures filled with humour and heart. Though having different themes all these books have the stamp of a master storyteller. His collection of short stories is aptly titles ‘Confessions of a Story Teller’.
