This old tale by GK Chesterton was on my list of things to read and finally I managed it. It’s a story about an England where alcohol has been banned and the pub culture has died, so the working man has nowhere to drink his essential beer, whilst the rich and privileged can still get hold of the stuff, even under cover of ‘medicinal sources.’ Running through the story is the strange influence of a caricatured ‘prophet’ of Islam, Misysra Ammon, who first appears propagating his worldview on an English beach amongst other assorted speakers, but who then from time to time appears again extolling the virtues of the great Islamic religion and eastern ideas above and beyond the native traditions of ‘Christian England.’ As well as this he has a go at old English pub names which he argues are corruptions of Turkish or Arab words! He seems to have a strange hold on the more privileged classes who traditionally and historically have been fascinated with eastern religions and alien cultures. There is even a ban on the sign of the cross on ballot papers, and a new game is introduced called ‘noughts and crescents.’ The sign of the cross is of course an offence in Islam.
Into this mix a motley crew upset the apple cart by realising that through a loophole in the law, that if they have a pub sign they can sell or imbibe alcohol wherever that sign is erected, and so become the ‘Flying Inn,’ outwitting the authorities wherever they try to stamp out this ‘errant’ behaviour. And so they move from place to place in a donkey cart carrying a keg of rum and a hoop of cheese, whipping out the pub sign at all the right moments and giving solace to lovers of alcohol everywhere. The core characters in this little charade are Captain Patrick Dalroy (radical), a larger than life Irishman with a shock of red hair and a preponderance to ‘cock a snoop’ at authority, and his sidekick Humphrey Pump, the former innkeeper (‘good old English Tory’ as Charles Moore describes him). As they travel they philosophise and write songs and poetry to entertain themselves. And we mustn’t forget the accompanying dog, Quoodle! They are joined later in the story by the poet, Dorian Wimpole.
Representing the ‘elite’ is Lord Ivywood, who represents a ‘we know better than you’ attitude and an over zealousness in implementing the temperance regime. At the same time he comes over as the ‘enlightened’ individual who has left behind any simple idea of what it means to be English and taken on a more progressive persona, perhaps linked with the influence of Islam or the Turks, as they are referred to in this tale. He is determined to stamp out the tomfoolery of Dalroy and Hump and goes to parliament to quietly implement an amendment to the temperance law stating that alcohol can only be sold, with the pub sign of course, when it has been on the premises for three days. That should deal with Dalroy’s nomadic inn!
In the end Dalroy and Hump form the beginnings of a mass movement, who having seen the hypocrisy of the upper classes in supplying their own alcohol, resolve to rebel against the authorities. They end up marching to Lord Ivywood’s estate. The twist in the tale is that adjoining Ivywood’s estate is another somewhat mysterious estate where it transpires a secret military machine has been assembled, centring on the Turks and Islam. Dalroy and his cohorts of course confront them and triumph over them. And so in the end the true spirit of the Englishman shines through.
I have read the reviews which variously and predictably mention shades of racism, anti-semitism and xenophobia in the book, so predictable in the present cultural climate. This highlights just how far the thinking of the average opinion former today differs from the status quo in early twentieth century England. Mention has also been made in reviews of the place of Islam in the book, that it portends an Islamic takeover of the nation. It is difficult to believe that Chesterton at that time was writing something prophetic about what he believed would happen to England in the future, given that England was a far more homogenous culture in his day, but had he seen something in the English ruling classes, their psyche, that predisposed them towards a denial of their culture and an assimilation with other cultures?
Certainly the analogy could be taken too far, but the story of the ‘Flying Inn’ is particularly prescient today given the rise of militant Islam and the pusillanimous response of the authorities in the UK to it. The book ends with a clash between the indigenous culture and a military force that has been secretly built up over a period of time.
Chillingly, we recently hear that Islamic jihadists have been smuggling arms into this country. With regard to the recent Tunisian outrage against, sadly, many British people, the authorities have raided mosques in Tunisia, and many of them have been storing arms. Perhaps there is more to Chesterton’s tale than we give him credit for. What will it take for the so called progressive (or deceived?) British ruling classes to wake up and divine what might be happening to their country over which they should have a cherished responsibility. Unless of course it is happening by design, the ultimate wickedness.