Valmouth is a 1919 novel by British author Ronald Firbank

Ronald Firbank

Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank was a British novelist.-Biography:Ronald Firbank was born in London, the son of society lady Harriet Jane Garrett and MP Sir Thomas Firbank. He went to Uppingham School, and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907...

. Valmouth is an imaginary English spa resort that attracts centenarians owing to its famed pure air. The town's name is a parody of actual seaside towns in the southwest peninsula of Britain, such as Falmouth

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

, Dartmouth

Dartmouth, Devon

Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...

, Teignmouth

Teignmouth

Teignmouth is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign about 14 miles south of Exeter. It has a population of 14,413. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...

, Exmouth

Exmouth

Exmouth is a town in Devon. It may also refer to:Places*Exmouth Peninsula in Southern Chile*Exmouth, Western AustraliaPeople*Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth , a British naval officerShips...

 and Weymouth.

The novel's plot concerns, among other things, the effects of a black woman and her niece moving into a spa resort inhabited by wealthy centenarians. The ironic novel is about eroticism and exoticism in the milieu of quaint but lewd old British ladies at the fictional spa. The novel is noted for its florid and baroque style and parody-like humor, and its sexual innuendos both heterosexual and homosexual. Also of note therein is a fanciful brand of Catholicism — a blend of mortification of the flesh, high-flown mysticism, and proselytism.

In 1958, a musical adaptation, Valmouth, was written by Sandy Wilson

Sandy Wilson

Sandy Wilson is an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend .-Biography:Wilson was born Alexander Galbraith Wilson in Sale, Greater Manchester, and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Ordnance Corps in Great...

.

Summary

Two wealthy elderly Valmouth-area ladies, Mrs Hurstpierpoint and Mrs Thoroughfare, are concerned with the marriage prospects of the latter's son, Captain Dick Thoroughfare. Captain Thoroughfare, away at sea, is rather scandalously engaged to a black girl, Niri-Esther, but he also favours his 'chum', Jack Whorwood.

Thetis Tooke, a local farmer's daughter, is obsessed with Captain Thoroughfare. Meanwhile the exotic Mrs Yajnavalkya, a black masseuse and chiropodist, attempts to procure a sexual dalliance with Thetis's virile brother David for the centenarian Lady Parvula de Panzoust.

Eventually, Captain Thoroughfare returns to England. It comes to light that he has virtually married Niri-Esther, that they have a baby, and that she is also pregnant with his second child.

Main characters

• Mrs Eulalia Hurstpierpoint, a dowager. She lives at Hare-Hatch House.
• Mrs Elizabeth Thoroughfare, another dowager, Mrs Hurstpierpoint's companion at Hare-Hatch House.
• Lady Parvula de Panzoust, a widow and friend of the Hare-Hatch dowagers; she is taken with the young farmer David Tooke.
• Mrs Yajñavalkya, a dark-skinned woman of Eastern birth, who is a ladies' masseuse and chiropodist.
• Niri-Esther, a dark-skinned young woman, niece of Mrs Yajñavalkya.
• Captain Dick Thoroughfare, Mrs Thoroughfare's son, away in Jamaica
  Jamaica
  Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
  
  , who returns and has "married" Niri-Esther.
• Miss Thetis Tooke, a farmer's daughter, who is infatuated with Captain Thoroughfare.
• David Tooke, Thetis's brother, a farmer.
• Mrs Tooke, grandmother to Thetis and David, and a massage client of Yajñavalkya.
• Lieutenant Whorwood, an effeminate man who is Captain Dick Thoroughfare's 'chum'.
• Father Colley-Mahoney, a priest, who seems overly fond of male servants.

Musical theatre adaptation

In 1958, a musical, Valmouth, was adapted by Sandy Wilson

Sandy Wilson

Sandy Wilson is an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend .-Biography:Wilson was born Alexander Galbraith Wilson in Sale, Greater Manchester, and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Ordnance Corps in Great...

 from this and other Firbank stories. It opened at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, in London. The musical has since been staged several times, and several cast album recordings have been released. The musical has also been performed on BBC radio, first broadcast in 1975.