The spoof diary of a lower-middle-class London clerk, this comic masterpiece-which details the doings of the ridiculously pompous and accident-prone Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie and their troublesome son Lupin-has been a source of delight to generations of readers and inspired many celebrated writers, from J.B. Priestley and Evelyn Waugh to Helen Fielding and Sue Townsend.