The Turps

This is the only complete edition of Turp material which exists either in Britain or America. The volume contains the letters published over here in "My Wife Ethel"; 17 Turp letters from "Short Takes"; 10 letters hitherto unpublished anywhere and the last fiction written by Runyon; and a long opening story not previously printed in Britain. Joe and Ethel Turp are a devoted young couple living in Brooklyn. Joe goes to business daily, and Ethel leads the ordinary eager and loquacious existence of a nitwit housewife in a modest New York apartment. Joe, in the form of letters to (by implication) Runyon, narrates day-by-day incidents of his life with Ethel.The amusing result has more continuity than any other of Runyon's stories. The Turps develop as the series proceeds; and the book ends with them proudly taking the air and pushing a pram, from which wide-eyed twins survey an unpredictable world.