# Jonah and Co.

Jonah and Co. is a 1922 collection of comic short stories by the English author Dornford Yates (Cecil William Mercer), featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters.

## Plot

Berry, Daphne, Jonah, Jill, Boy and Adèle (with Nobby the Sealyham) travel by road through France to winter in Pau. While staying there they venture into northern Spain.
Boy and Adèle are newly married. Jill meets her future husband, Piers, Duke of Padua.

## Background

This was a happy period in Mercer's life; he had acquired a villa in Pau in South-west France, and his characters followed him there. It became the Mercer family's permanent home in 1922 after the book was published.
All of the stories in Jonah and Co. had originally appeared in The Windsor Magazine between October 1921 and September 1922, although the original editions of the book (until c. 1925) included a Prologue and Epilogue that had not been included in the magazine. These were subsequently reprinted in The Best of Berry (Dent's Classic Thrillers, 1989) as The Gypsy's Warning and The Fairy Child respectively.

## Chapters

| Chapter | Book Title | Windsor Title | Date | Volume | Issue | Pages | Illustrator |
| | Prologue | | | | | | |
| I | How Berry stepped into the breach, and Jonah came first and was served | The Rule Of The Road | October 1921 | LIV | 322 | 449-460 | Norah Schlegel |
| II | How three wagers were made, and Adèle killed two birds with one stone | A Run For Our Money | November 1921 | LIV | 323 | 551-562 | Norah Schlegel |
| III | How a Golden Calf was set up, and Nobby showed himself a true prophet | By Order Of The Trustees | December 1921 | LV | 324 | 3-14 | Norah Schlegel |
| IV | How Berry made an engagement, Jill a picture, and Adèle a slip of some importance | A Snare And A Delusion | January 1922 | LV | 325 | 105-116 | Norah Schlegel |
| V | How love came to Jill, Herbert to the rescue, and a young man by his right | Nobility And Gentry | February 1922 | LV | 326 | 215-227 | Norah Schlegel |
| VI | How Berry ran contraband goods, and the Duke of Padua plighted Jill his troth | Manners And Customs | March 1922 | LV | 327 | 331-345 | Norah Schlegel |
| VII | How Daphne lost her bedfellow, and the line of least resistance proved irresistible | A Royal Progress | April 1922 | LV | 328 | 447-458 | Norah Schlegel |
| VIII | How Adèle bought a bottle of perfume which had no smell, and I cut Eulalie dead | Red Violets | May 1922 | LV | 329 | 561-572 | Norah Schlegel |
| IX | How Jonah took off his coat, and Berry flirted with Fortune for all he was worth | Zero | June 1922 | LVI | 330 | 3-15 | Norah Schlegel |
| X | How Berry sought comfort in van, and Nobby slept upon a Queen's bed | No Thoroughfare | July 1922 | LVI | 331 | 113-125 | Norah Schlegel |
| XI | How Berry put off his manhood, and Adèle showed a fair pair of heels | A Tight Place | August 1922 | LVI | 332 | 229-241 | Norah Schlegel |
| XII | How a telegram came for Jill, Piers demanded his sweetheart, and I drove after my wife | Journeys End | September 1922 | LVI | 333 | 345-357 | Norah Schlegel |
| | Epilogue | | | | | | |

## Illustrations

The illustrations from the Windsor stories by Norah Schlegel (1879-1963) were not included in the book version.

## Critical reception

Jonah and Co. was as commercially successful as Berry and Co. had been. In his 1982 biography of the author, AJ Smithers considered that Berry remains dauntlessly funny, and at the top of his form: "A merry journey over the long roads of France ... and all written with the freshness of one who was discovering these things for the first time."