This image is the cover for the book The Count's Chauffeur, Classics To Go

The Count's Chauffeur, Classics To Go

This is an odd collection of short stories featuring a criminal Count's chauffeur around 1910. The stories of the heists are off-kilter, since for most of the story we are in the dark like the chauffeur, and the heist is revealed at the end of the story. The heist stories dominate the first half of the book, then the second half has the chauffeur have some adventures of his own while driving around Britain and continental Europe. The driving is the key in the book, since it reads like a vicarious road trip for readers of the time, especially for those who fantasised about meeting gorgeous women along the way. If you ever wondered what it was like getting a car and driving in the early days of motoring, especially in Europe, this is the book for you! (Goodreads)

William Le Queux

William Tufnell Le Queux (2 July 1864 – 13 October 1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat (honorary consul for San Marino), a traveller (in Europe, the Balkans and North Africa), a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available; his claims regarding his own abilities and exploits, however, were usually exaggerated. His best-known works are the anti-French and anti-Russian invasion fantasy The Great War in England in 1897 (1894) and the anti-German invasion fantasy The Invasion of 1910 (1906), the latter becoming a bestseller.

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