''And Berry Came Too'' is a 1936 collection of comic short stories by the English author

Dornford Yates Cecil William Mercer (7 August 1885 – 5 March 1960), known by his pen name Dornford Yates, was an English writer and novelist whose novels and short stories, some humorous (the ''Berry'' books), some thrillers (the ''Chandos'' books), were be ...

(Cecil William Mercer), featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters.

Plot

The book consists of eight short stories, mostly set in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. According to an introductory note by the author, the action of the book may be presumed to have taken place during the summer between the events of chapters 1 and 2 of '' Berry and Co.'', ie some 16 years earlier. In addition to the regular "Berry & Co" characters this book also features the family's two-year-old Alsatian "The Knave", and a visiting American, Perdita Boyte.

Background

All of the stories in ''And Berry Came Too'' had originally appeared in '' The Windsor Magazine'' between May and December 1935. They were written while Mercer was settled at Pau with his second wife, Elizabeth (whom he thought of as 'Jill', and to whom the book was dedicated).

Chapters

Four of the stories were serialised in ''

Woman's Home Companion ''Woman's Home Companion'' was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, O ...

'' during 1935, illustrated by Frederick Chapman - chapter 1 in March, chapter 2 in May, chapter 4 in July and chapter 5 in September, under the same titles as ''The Windsor''.

Illustrations

The illustrations from the Windsor stories by E G Oakdale (presumed to be Edmund Oakdale, known for his railway travel posters) were not included in the book version.

Critical reception

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'' reviewed the book on 29 January 1936. The reviewer welcomed the return of Berry after an absence of five years and suggested that the publication would be met with "a loud and general cheer". There was, however, some criticism of the author's "curious blind spot" in his portrayal of women, and in particular the way in which the narrator, Boy, maintains a commentary on the beauty, sweetness and virtue of the female characters, and the way in which he enthusiastically and repeatedly likens his girlfriend to a child. AJ Smithers in his 1982 biography considered this criticism to be 'entirely fair'.

References

Bibliography

* {{Books by Dornford Yates 1936 short story collections Ward, Lock & Co. books Short story collections by Dornford Yates