Introduction Biography Addresses Portraits
Books Short stories Stage plays Film and TV Radio and audio
Quotations Fishing Poetry Food Settings Dedications Narrative style Canning in the OED Reading lists Articles on Canning
Centenary News Links Availability

The Daffodil Day

Short Story (3350 words)

This story was among papers sent by Mrs Adria Canning to the American Heritage Center in Wyoming in 1986 following Victor Canning's death, but I am informed by Gill Jeffrey that it appeared in Woman's Own in 1981. It is a whimsical account of a day excursion by a party of mainly elderly people. An unnamed young man hitches a ride home on the bus, sits in turn with several of the passengers and somehow seems to solve a problem for each of them.

The character and plot are strongly suggestive of Canning's last work, Table Number Seven, so much so that this looks like an early sketch for the book.

Published in Woman's Own, 1981.

Included in the collection Comedies and Whimsies, ed. John Higgins.