Mr. Prohack

Book excerpt: This is a humorous story of a civil servant struggling with financial pressures post-World War I when he unexpectedly inherits £100 000 from someone to whom he did a good turn. This fortune affects him and his family (wife Eve, son Charlie, daughter Sissie) in different ways. He tries various tactics to handle the novelty: spending, scrupulously planned idleness, even visits to Turkish Baths. His son tries speculation, his daughter a dance school, his wife becoming a society hostess. The story reveals how Mr Prohack grapples with the reality of the power of riches without losing his integrity and sense of self.