He graduated in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science degree, having lost a year and a half due to World War I. One day Fritha, a young girl from the nearby village, brings him a snow goose wounded by a gun shot. The indomitable Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. And the actual raging toward the Russians and Moscow in this book is so disrespectful I was shocked.

His first major book was Farewell to Sport, which as the title indicates, was his farewell to sports writing. And so Ada Harris and her friend Mrs Butterworth fly east, with the former intent on helping her employer, lovelorn Mr Lockwood. When, much to her surprise, she wins a trip for two beyond the Iron Curtain, she has no idea of the adventure that lies ahead of her. If you want something comfortable, easy-to-read, and faintly ridiculous, then it is fine — it’s a cold Sunday afternoon, put the heating on, make a cup of tea, may be a slice of Dundee cake, and curl up on the sofa with Mrs Harris Goes To Moscow.A wonderful Paul Gallico novella is ‘The Lonely’ about a US pilot stationed in the UK during WW2 and surprisingly modern in its description of the relationships between the sexes and the consequences you have to face for the decisions you make.

It’s of its time , maybe a little old fashioned attitude that wards women and class BUT it was an easy read , delightful, uplifting and great characters in a lovely imaginative plot. If you liked the others, you’ll certainly like this – if you can face reading about Russian collusion in the current environment (it did feel oddly topical). I realize this was written when the COLD WAR was still going on but the rants just felt so stereotypical. Mrs Harris Goes To Moscow is the fourth and final in Gallico’s occasional series of books about the adventures of Mrs Ada Harris, a widowed London char woman.

In a time of COVID-19, it was actually rather relaxing to read a novel set in the Cold War, knowing the ultimate ending of that conflict. Mrs Harris is a two-dimensional stereotype of a 'working class' person (or rather, a romanticised view of what a middle class person of the era might think a 'working class' person to be). I'm somewhat sorry that this installment completed the series, but it hasn't spoiled my memory of my introduction to Mrs. I'm not a great fan of farce but this is reasonably well done and the craziness of the USSR certainly provides excellent opportunities for bizarre situations.

Harris is one of those characters you just don't forget, and despite the book coming out many decades ago, it transcends the years. Meanwhile, a series of bureaucratic misunderstandings in the vast Soviet machine lead to Mrs Harris and Violet coming to the attention of the KGB. Butterfield are much the same, and that is part of the problem as we don't really see anything new to round out the characters any further. Russia in Fiction has no further reason to trouble ourselves with any other of the Mrs Harris novels, but we are not unhappy that we read this one.When your choice of fiction is influenced by where it is set, then you can end up reading novels that you would not otherwise have given a second glance to. And as if all that is not confusing enough, do be careful not to muddle up Mrs Harris Goes To Moscow (1974) with Miss Bagshot Goes To Moscow (1961), written by Anne Telscombe, who is the author of the book reviewed directly before this one in Russia in Fiction’s progress towards 100 reviews. That will while away an hour or so pleasantly enough, taking you to the attitudes and assumptions of England in the 1970s, and to a view of Moscow and the Soviet Union through that particular lens. Gallico’s story is straightforward and well-constructed, and it moves along at a fair old pace to its conclusion within 200 pages. My daughter and I loved the film and I usually enjoy the original book version of the story even more.