Travels with My Aunt

infobox Book |
name = Travels with My Aunt
orig title =
translator =


author = Graham Greene
cover_artist =
country = England
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = The Bodley Head
release_date = 1969
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 319 pp (First Edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-14-018501-1
preceded_by = The Comedians
followed_by = The Honorary Consul

"Travels with My Aunt" (1969) is a novel written by British author Graham Greene. It has been adapted into film once, in 1972.

The novel follows the travels of Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, and his eccentric Aunt Augusta as they find their way across Europe, and eventually even further afield. Aunt Augusta pulls Henry away from his quiet suburban existence into a world of adventure, crime and the highly-unconventional details of her past.

Plot summary

The novel begins when Henry Pulling, a conventional and uncharming bank manager who has taken early retirement, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at his mother's funeral. Despite having little in common, they form a bond.

Henry finds himself drawn into Aunt Augusta's world of travel, adventure, romance and absence of bigotry.

He travels first with her to Brighton, where he meets one of his aunt's old acquaintances, and gains an insight into one of her many past lives. Here a psychic foreshadows that he will have many travels in the near future. This prediction inevitably becomes true as Henry is pulled further and further into his aunt's lifestyle, and delves deeper into her past.

Their voyages take them from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express, and as the journey unfolds, so do the stories of Aunt Augusta, painting the picture of a woman for whom love has been the defining feature of her life.

Henry returns to his quiet retirement, but tending his garden no longer holds the same allure, and with a letter from his aunt, he finally gives up his old life to join his aunt and the love of her life in South America and to marry a girl decades his junior.

As his travels progress it becomes clear to Henry that the woman he had been raised to believe was his mother was in fact his aunt. His real mother is Augusta, and her reconnection with him at her sister's funeral was her beginning the process of reclaiming her child.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

1972 Film adaptation

The film adaptation stars Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Louis Gossett Jr. and Cindy Williams. Maggie Smith played almost forty years older than her actual age. She is also nearly nine years younger than Alec McCowen, who was her nephew in the film.

The movie was adapted by Jay Presson Allen, Hugh Wheeler and Katharine Hepburn (uncredited) from the novel by Graham Greene. It was directed by George Cukor.

It won the Academy Award for Costume Design and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Maggie Smith), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Cinematography.

Play Adaptation

The play adaptation was created by Giles Havergal former Artistic Director of The Glasgow Citizens Theatre. It was first performed as a play at The Glasgow Citizens Theatre on the 10 November 1989 with the following cast: Giles Havergal, Derwent Watson, Patrick Hannaway, and Christopher Gee. Since then, the version adapted by Havergal has been performed in London, New York, San Francisco and at theatres throughout the English-speaking world.