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Pelham Grenville Wodehouse; P.G. Wodehouse

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Titles to Look Out For:
[dates below refer to first date each title was publisheed, but listings below include any later editions that have come into stock]
1910. PSmith in the City
1915. Something Fresh (Blandings, 1st Novel)
1923. Leave it to Psmith (Blandings, 2nd Novel)

1925. Sam the Sudden
1929. Summer Lightning (Blandings)
1930. Very Good, Jeeves!
1931. If I Were You
1931. Big Money
1935. Enter Psmith
1937. Summer Moonshine
1938. The Code of the Woosters
1939. Uncle Fred in the Springtime
1948. Uncle Dynamite
1953. Ring for Jeeves
1953. Mike at Wrykyn. (originally published as 'Mike' and including 'Mike and Psmith' or formerly 'Enter Psmith' in 1909)
1953. Mike and Psmith (originally published as 'Mike' and including 'Mike at Wrykyn' in 1909)
1961. Ice in the Bedroom
1961. Service with a Smile
1967. The World of Jeeves
1977. Vintage Wodehouse

Note: Everyman's Library is reprinting PG Wodehouse books in hardcover with the aim of reprinting all of the titles. You can see which are currently available by using our prebuilt search when you click HERE

About the Author:
P.G. Wodehouse was born in Guildford in 1881 and was educated at Dulwich College. He worked at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank for a couple of years, leaving to become a journalist and storywriter. He wrote the 'By the Way' column in the old 'Globe'.
He wrote a series of school stories for a magazine for boys called the 'Captain', in one of which Psmith made his first appearance.
Wodehouse went to America before the First World War and sold a serial to the 'Saturday Evening Post' and for the next 25 years, almost all his books made their first appearance in this magazine. He also had a hand in writing the lyrics to eighteen musical comedies including 'Kissing Time'.

P.G. Wodehouse married in 1914, taking American citizenship in 1955. In total, he wrote over ninety books winning worldwide acclaim for them and seeing them translated into numerous different languages.
He was created a Knight of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List in 1975 and died that same year, after giving a radio interview in which he said he had no ambitions left after receiving the knighthood and having a waxwork of him put up in Madame Tussauds

Did You Know?
One of P.G. Wodehouse's books inspired the creation of a definitive work mapping all of Great Britain's railways and stations - the 2003 Ian Allan publication entitled The Railways of Great Britain. A Historical Atlas. [Volume 1 and 2 in Slipcase]. Michael Cobb, a retired army colonel, was once asked to produce a postscript for the last P.G Wodehouse book, Sunset at Blandings Castle. The publishers asked Cobb to try and work out where Blandings Castle might be located using the railway information that Wodehouse had given in the story. What Cobb realised from this research is that there were no cartographic studies available that focused on the railways and stations of Great Britain. He decided produce the study himself and its scope covered every railway and station opened between 1807 and 1994, superimposing them on one-inch OS maps. It took him 18 years and it was published by Ian Allan in 2004 (Heritage Railway, No. 140, 5 August - 1st September, 2010, p.27)
Click HERE for our railways page

On Amazon:

Wodehouse at the Wicket Cricket Anthology (Kindle)

2007. Best of Wodehouse anthology by Everyman
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Psmith in the City', published by A. & C. Black in 1941 (thirteenth reprint), 268pp, no ISBN. Condition: Good condition hardcover 266pp A. & C. Black 1941 reprint of the 1923 edition. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title (by A&C Black) on Amazon
1941, A. & C. Black
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  • Psmith in the City [top]
    First published in September, 1910, in Great Britain by A. & C. Black in hardcover with dustjacket
    Reprinted 1919
    New edition published in March 1923 in Great Britain by A. & C. Black
    Reprinted in 1941 for the 13th time in Great Britain by A. & C. Black, in hardback

    Published on December 10, 1970 in Great Britain in paperback, 160pp, ISBN 014003207X
    Published in June 1988 in Great Britain by Marboro Books in paperback, ISBN 088029275X
    Published on October 27, 2000 in Germany in hardback by Everyman's Library, 208pp, ISBN 1841591084
    Published on March 31, 2004 in Great Britain in paperback, 224pp, ISBN 0809592819
    Audio Download published by Audible on September 2, 2005, unabridged, 5 hours, 29 minutes, narrated by Jonathan Cecil
    Large Print Edition published on November 10, 2006 in Great Britain by BiblioLife in paperback, 188pp, ISBN 014003207X
    Published on April 26, 2013 in Great Britain by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, in paperback, 100pp, ISBN 1484829395
    Kindle Edition published on December 7, 2014 by Otbebookpublishing, 199pp
    AudioCD (MP3) published on June 9, 2015 by Brilliance Audio, narrated by Phil Gigante

Characters:
Mike Jackson
Psmith
Mr. John Bickersdyke (bank manager of the New Asiatic bank, where Mike & Psmith end up working)
Mr. Waller
Mr. Bannister (a shock-headed youth, and fellow employee of the New Asiatic Bank)
Mr. Rossiter (head of the postage department, a "fussy little brute" [p34])

Storyline: Mike's hopes of going to Cambridge are dashed by his father suffering financial problems. So, he has to go out in the real world and starts working for the New Asiatic Bank in London, where Psmith soon also cheerfully rolls up. Having annoyed Mr. Bickersdyke the bank manager, when he visited the Smith family for dinner, by trying to improve him mentally and morally, Bickersdyke announced that he wouldn't mind seeing Psmith working for him, where he could knock some of the nonsense out of him. Since this coincided with Psmith's father's admiration of the banking sector, the deed was done and Psmith became employee. Needless to say, Psmith and Mike are not quite cut out for the job...or maybe the job's not quite cut out for the two chums!

1st Edition, 1910, A&C Black


1941, hardback, A&C Black reprint


March 2020, pbk, Independent Publishers

Wodehouse, P.G. 'Something Fresh', published post 1986 (7th printing) by Penguin in Great Britain, ISBN 0140050353, 208pp. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1991?, Penguin, pbk
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  • Something Fresh [top]
    First published in 1915 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins
    First published in 1979 in Penguin Books in Great Britain in paperback, 208pp, ISBN 0140050353
    Reprinted at least 7 times post 1979 by Penguin Books
    7th printing (pictured left) published in paperback, 208pp, ISBN 0140050353. Cover illustration by Chris Riddell. Original retail prices when published: £3.99; Australia: $9.95; NZ: $15.95; Canada: $5.95; USA: $4.95
    Published on 23rd October 1986 in Great Britain by Hutchinson in hardback, 192pp, ISBN 0091676908
    Published in 2005 in Great Britain by Overlook Books in hardback, 7th April 2005, ISBN 1585676586
    Audio Download published on December 4, 2006 by Blackstone Audio, Unabridged, 7 hours, 15 minutes listening time, narrated by Frederick Davidson
    Published in 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow in paperback, 272pp, ISBN 0099513781
    Kindle Edition published on October 6, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 272pp
    AudioCD published on 14th June 2011 in Great Britain by Canongate CSA Audio, abridged, narrated by Martin Jarvis
    Published on 22nd October 2015 in Great Britain by Hutchinson, in hardback, 304pp, ISBN 0091959519

Storyline: This, the first of the Blandings novels introduces us to some of the most popular characters Wodehouse penned - namely Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle; his son Freddie Threepwood; Lady Constance Keeble (Emsworth's sister); the Efficient Baxter (Lord Emsworth's secretary and the man who runs Blandings) and Beach the butler.

The basic storyline is that Freddie Threepwood has proposed to the daughter of wealthy millionaire J. Preston Peters, who has rented the neighbouring estate to Blandings. Freddie should be happy...but he's not. He's worried. What's gnawing at him is that he'd sent some letters to a girl he fell in love with in a show he watched the year before in Piccadilly, a girl called Joan Valentine. Not having met the girl, but deeply in love, he may have promised marriage to her...but at the very least he wrote her a lot of poetry.

Ordinarily, love letters are harmless things themselves, but Freddie is mindful that his cousin Lord Percy Stockheath has just been sued for breach of promise. If the girl saw news of his engagement to Aline Peters in the papers, she might get busy and launch a law-suit. So Freddie hires an old bookmaker (and small time genial crook) R. Jones to approach Miss Valentine and buy the letters back so they never come to light.

Meanwhile in Arundell Street a promising young crime writer, Ashe Marson is doing his famous Larsen exercises, that have so amused the neighbourhood. From the first floor, laughter suddenly rings out from a girl leaning out of the window - and this is how he first meets Joan Valentine.

Meanwhile...J. Preston Peters has invited Lord Emsworth, his daughter's prospective father-in-law to come and see his very expensive and carefully compiled collection of Egyptian scarabs. Unfortunately, Lord Emsworth is a bit absent-minded and pockets a very expensive and rare scarab - Cheops of the Fourth Dynasty - and goes off with it. Only later does J. Preston Peters come to realise it's gone missing and in the first flush of furious outrage believes that Lord Emsworth is rather deliberately light-fingered and tells his daughter he'll pay a thousand dollars to get the thing back (and he doesn't care how!). This determination by Mr. Peters to get his scarab back is the pivot of the story, as will be explained below:

Ashe Marson, crime writer; and Joan Valentine, contributor to Home Gossip are respectively hard up and eager for some excitement. Ashe doesn't any longer want to just publish crime stories - he wants to live a bit of the real detective excitement too, which is why he replies to a very mysterious ad asking for a young hard-up man of good appearance to undertake a delicate mission... . Joan on the other hand, hears of J. Preston Peter's decision to offer a reward of $5000 to anyone who gets his scarab back for him from his daughter, Aline, who is an old school friend (Aline was schooled in England).

Joan, excited about the potential money involved, therefore tells Aline that she'll get her father's scarab back for him and Aline takes Joan to Blandings as her lady's maid. J. Preston Peters on the other hand is the man behind the ad and he engages Ashe as his valet to take up to Blandings to do the deed. For a while therefore, Ashe and Joan are rivals at Blandings to steal back the scarab, but Ashe finds himself useful at Blandings for a completely different reason - getting Mr. Peters into shape... with Larsen exercises at dawn, brisk walks, no cigars and cold baths...

Well, the scene is set then for Joan or Ashe to bag the swag, but which one will get it? Will the ever-present, ever-watchful Baxter (who suspects everyone of everything) stop them? Will Baxter manage to stay awake during his night watches outside Emsworth's museum (home to said scarab)? And who is having snacks in the middle of the night and getting all the guests up?
Only Blandings can deliver this kind of fun from so many impostors, domestic staff and landed gentry!

Verdict - 9/10. This is a genuinely fresh Wodehouse and the story and plot are good with characters like Ashe and Joan that you can really feel empathy with and "egg them on" in their endeavours. Ashe at one point does an impression of two cats fighting, which gets him out of a spot of social discomfort. You really feel for him as he's performing this impression and just hope he earns approval rather than disapproval.

Baxter is just one of the best characters Wodehouse drew up - his very formal, watchful superiority and his lording it over the rest of the Blandings inhabitants makes it all the more delicious when he comes a cropper - one bit of the story to look out for is when Baxter is caught at night in the Hall by a large audience of guests and staff with food all around him and upset occasional tables of photographs and china.

And finally, you have to enjoy two characters growing to really like each other like Ashe and Mr. Peters; and laugh at the night-time reading that Ashe does for Mr. Peters - reading recipes out to him, like pork tenderloin, larded!

Characters:
Lord Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth
Lady Constance Keeble
Mr. Ashe Marson, crime-writer, son of Reverend Joseph Marson and Sarah.
Miss Joan Valentine, under the name of Miss Simpson whilst at Blandings
Mr. Richard Jones, "Dickie", book-keeper and procurer of other people's property
J. Preston Peters, American millionnaire who is letting the neighbouring estate to Blandings
Miss Aline Peters, daughter of J. Preston Peters
Frederick "Freddie" Threepwood, son of Lord Emsworth
George Emerson, second in command of the Hong Kong Police Force -met Aline Peters on the Olympic cruise ship on the way home from HK and knows Freddie from the National Sporting Club (Freddie owes George money from a bet he made...)
The Efficient Rupert J. Baxter, Lord Clarence Emsworth's secretary, a.k.a. "Fathead"
Butler Beach
And we should mention Lieutenant Larsen of the Danish Army, whose exercises have invigorated Ashe Marson...
Mrs Twemlow, the Blandings housekeeper
Lady Ann Warblington, the chatelaine
Merridew, the under-butler
James and Alfred, the footmen
Mr. Judson, Freddie's gentleman
Mr. Ferris, Lord Stockheath's ("Percy") gentleman
Miss Willoughby, Lady Mildred Mant's lady (Lady Mildred is Lord Emsworth's daughter), now married to Colonel Horace Mant
Miss Chester, Lady Ann Warblington's maid
Algernon Wooster
Bishop of Godalming
Mrs. Jack Hale
Slingsby, the Chauffeur
Adams, head steward of the Senior Conservative Club
Muriel, Lady Ann Warblington's Persian cat

1979, pbk, Penguin Books


1986, Hutchinson, hbk


2005, Harry N. Abrams, hbk


2005, Arrowman, hbk


2008, Arrow, pbk


Kindle Edition


2011, Canongate CSA Audio, Audiobook
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Leave it to Psmith', 10th paperback printing, published by Penguin, 272pp, ISBN 0140009361. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1988, Penguin, pbk
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  • Leave it to Psmith [top]
    First published in 1923 in Great Britain
    First published in 1953 in Penguin Books
    Published in 1975 in the United States by Vintage (USA), in paperback,
    245pp, ISBN 0394720261
    10th printing published on June 26, 1988 in Great Britain, 271pp, ISBN 0140009361
    Original UK retail price of 10th printing: UK - £3.99, Australia - $9.99, New Zealand - $15.95, Canada - $6.95. Cover illustration by Chris Riddell

    Published in 1991 in Great Britain in hardback with slipcase by the Folio Society
    Published in September 2003, in Great Britain by Overlook Press in paperback, 328pp, ISBN 158567432X

    Published on 26th September 2003 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 336pp, ISBN 1841591254
    Audio Download published on August 25, 2005 by Audible, Unabridged, Narrated by Jonathan Cecil, 9 hours and 1 minute
    Kindle Edition published on October 6, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 330pp
    AudioCD (MP3 CD) published on May 12, 2015 by Brilliance Audio and MP3 Una in Great Britain in Audio CD format. Narrated by Phil Gigante and Nick Archer

Storyline: This talented work from the genius hands of P.G. Wodehouse is the second in the Blandings Castle series after Something Fresh, and precedes Summer Lightning. It combines the loveable characters of PSmith and Mike with the equally loved Blandings Castle characters of Lord Emsworth, Lady Constance Keeble, Joe Keeble (her husband), the Efficient Baxter (secretary to Lord Emsworth), Beach the butler, Eve the new library cataloguer at Blandings and the cash-strapped Freddie Threepwood.

The calm peace of Blandings is once again being filled with impostors -some well-meaning and some not. And they all want to steal Aunt Constance's £20,000 diamond necklace (even her husband is in on it!). PSmith, with his natural bent for bringing people and solutions together, is in the thick of things of course, having assumed the identity of a Canadian poet called Ralston McTodd who was due to visit Blandings. It's a long story as to how he pulled it off getting into Blandings in the first place, but needless to say it involves Clarence losing his spectacles when meeting the poet in London and sitting at the wrong table...

Up to his neck in intrigue, humorous banter and quick thinking, Psmith knows he has to work a theft of the all-important necklace to help secure money for his old school friend Mike Jackson and wife Phyllis to buy a farm in Lincolnshire.

Clarence's superhuman secretary, The efficient Baxter, is keen to the presence of impostors (PSmith) and he suspects everyone of anything; so when Constance's necklace does go missing in a classic "lights-out" robbery, he's on the chase and on red-alert for signs of further criminal activities.

Unfortunately, Baxter is not as efficient in his late night criminal hunting activities and his choice of pyjama colour as he is in running the house and its occupants and he gets locked out of Blandings Castle chasing the suspected thief into the garden. Worse still, in disbelief at finding himself in Blanding's gardens with the front door of his empire shut on him, he tries to raise help by tossing flower pots through the nearest open window...his employer's bedroom window. Not his best career move...

Verdict: 9/10. Loved this book, it's really good fun - Baxter and Psmith are as usual excellent characters in this story. Both are loveable - Psmith moreso, but Baxter is all the more funny for being as serious as he is, and yet the victim of various mishaps just merely from doing his job really well!

Keep an eye out for the scene where Psmith is meeting Freddie Threepwood in a hotel lobby in a clandestine meeting to arrange for Psmith to procure Lady Constance's diamond necklace. Will it rain in Northumberland tomorrow?

Freddie Threepwood is also on top form - he's still falling in love with every girl he meets; and he's got great ideas for getting hold of money to fund his schemes (mostly set around gambling), but he's just not that good at coming through with the goods. One of his finest moments is at the end of the story when a bullet narrowly misses him upstairs in the gamekeeper's cottage...

Characters:
Lord Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth
Lady Constance Keeble, wife of Joseph Keeble
Mr. Joseph Keeble, husband of Lady Constance
Frederick "Freddie" Threepwood, son of Lord Emsworth, and hard-up as usual!
Ronald Eustace Smith, a.k.a "Psmith", of Corfby Hall
The Efficient Rupert J. Baxter, Lord Clarence Emsworth's secretary, a.k.a. "Fathead", or "Nosey Parker"
Butler Beach
Mike Jackson (Phyillis' husband)
Phyllis Jackson (Mike's wife and stepdaughter of Mr. Joseph Keeble)
Miss Aileen Peavey, poet
Edward Cootes, "Comrade Cootes" - hapless crook
Eve Halliday, friend of Phyllis Jackson's. Employed at Blandings to catalogue the library
Miss Clarkson, a.k.a "Clarkie", former English mistress of Wayland House at the school where Eve and Phyllis studied
Rollo Mountford - rejected fiancé of Phyllis's. When Phyllis rejects Rollo, she incurs Lady Constance's wrath
Thomas, Charles and Stokes: footmen
Angus McAllister, Clarence's head gardener
Jane, Phyllis & Mike's maid
The Honourable Mr. Walderwick - unwittingly lends his umbrella to Miss Halliday...
Susan, the new parlourmaid, a.k.a. "Miss Simmons", a private detective

1st Edition, 1923, hardback


1953, Penguin Books, paperback


1988, Penguin, paperback


2003, hardback


2008, Arrow

Wodehouse, P.G. Sam The Sudden, published by Methuen in 1933, 248pp. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1933, Methuen
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  • Sam The Sudden [top]
    This edition published in 1925 in Great Britain by Methuen in hardback, in red cloth boards with black titling, 248 pages plus 7 pages of Methuen's book catalogue
    Reprinted in 1927 in Great Britain by Methuen
    Reprinted in 1933 in Great Britain by Methuen , 248pp, hardback, no ISBN

    Reprinted in 1934 in Great Britain (10th Printing) by Methuen in hardback, 248pp
    Reprinted in 1950 in Great Britain by Methuen in hardback, 248pp
    Published on July 25,1974 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, 256pp, ISBN 0140038361
    Published on May 18, 2007 in Germany by Everyman's Library, 320pp, ISBN 1841591505

    Reprinted in November 2007 in Great Britain by Overlook Press in hardback with dustjacket, 314pp, ISBN 1585679771

Storyline: Not-so-fresh off the tramp steamer from America, Sam Sholter settles in the sleepy suburb of Valley Fields. His pastoral peace is short-lived, however, when Soapy Molloy, Dolly the Dip and Chimp Twist arrive on the scene looking for two million dollars they seem to have mislaid in the vicinity...

1st Edition, 1925, Methuen


1974, Penguin, pbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Summer Lightning', published in 1985 in the US by Penguin Books in pbk, 255pp, ISBN 0140009957. Condition: Good, clean & tidy condition, well looked-after. Both cover and internal pages have some light tanning. Price:£1.99, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1985, Penguin Books USA, pbk
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Wodehouse, P.G. 'Summer Lightning', published in 1979 in Great Britain by Barrie & Jenkins Ltd in hardback, 240pp, ISBN 0257663134. Condition: Good+ condition copy-dj has a couple of small rips to it and sellotape reinforcement on back. Previous owner has written a few neat notes on the book list and title page at the front of the book (does not affect story text). Price: £5.25, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1979, Barrie & Jenkins, hbk
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  • Summer Lightning [top]
    Dedicated to Denis Mackail, author of 'Greenery Street' and 'The Flower Show' and other books that Wodehouse wishes he had written
    First published (1st Edition) in 1929 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in hardback
    Published in 1954 in Great Britain in Penguin Books in paperback
    Reprinted in 1962 in Great Britain in Penguin Books in paperback
    Reprinted in 1966 in Great Britain in Penguin Books in paperback
    Reprinted in 1971 in Great Britain in Penguin Books, in paperback, ISBN 0140009957
    Reprinted in 1975 in Great Britain in Penguin Books
    Reprinted in 1981 in Great Britain in Penguin Books
    Reprinted in 1985 in the United States in Penguin Books in paperback, 255pp, ISBN 0140009957 (shown on left). Cover by Ionicus. Original UK retail price of this edition was UK-£2.50, Aust-$4.95, Can-$4.50, USA-$3.95
    Republished in 1979 in Great Britain by Barrie & Jenkins (Hutchinson Publishing Group) in hardback with dustjacket, 240pp, ISBN 0257663134. Original UK retail price of this edition was £5.50 net
    Published on 24th November 2000 in Germany by Everyman's Library, in hardback with dustjacket, ISBN 9781841591094
    AudioCD published on 5th November 2007 by Canongate Books in Great Britain in Audio CD format, read by Martin Jarvis, 4 audio CDS, 300 minutes running time
    Published by Arrow Books in 2008 in Great Britain in paperback, 336pp, ISBN 009951382X
    Kindle Edition published on October 6, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 320pp
    Audio Download published on August 22, 2011 by Audible, 7 hours, 25 minutes listening time, narrated by John Wells
    This is the third novel in the Blandings series after 'Something Fresh' (1915) and 'Leave it to PSmith' (1923). PSmith is of course the fabulous character from the Mike and PSmith books

Storyline: The story is set at Blandings Castle- that veritable paradise of Shropshire, where not all the visitors are who they say they are- with two couples in love and wondering how to get approval for their engagements (and upcoming marriages) from Lady Constance and Clarence.

Naturally, the couples have not made ideal choices of partner and breaking the news to the families (particularly Lady Constance) is going to be tricky and awkward... . Lord Clarence Emsworth's very plump and prize-winning pig the Empress of Blandings comes in to the calculations -she goes missing (one of the couples steals the pig in the hope that Clarence will be so pleased when he gets her back, he'll give the nod to the match). Suspicion falls on Clarence's competitor in the pig showing world, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe (in the nearby village of Matchingham), and Clarence leads a search party to his residence. This achieves nothing, but it does confirm Sir Gregory's opinion of Clarence's sanity, so there was an outcome of sorts to this.

Weave into the love stories constant misunderstandings between the couples as to whether their partners are interested in someone else; mix in those very someone elses with those partners in the same place at the same time (Blandings of course), add in a sprinkle of mistrust, subterfuge involving pigs, a detective called Percy Pilbeam, a put-upon butler called Beach and Clarence's former secretary Baxter and you have the ingredients for classic Blandings confusion and humour from Mr. Wodehouse.

- oh, as a postscript, the Honourable Galahad Threepwood (Lord Emsworth's brother) is a big part of the proceedings -he's writing his memoirs about all the funny things he got up to with friends, family and acquaintances and what's more he's going to reveal everything. Naturally a few people are quite keen to get the memoirs taken care of in a 'let's pay someone to steal it' sort of manner. Will Gally get to publish, or will he bow to pressure?

Contents:
CHAPTER

1. Trouble brewing at Blandings
2. The Course of True Love
3. Sensational Theft of a Pig
4. Noticeable Behaviour of Ronald Fish
5. A 'Phone Call for Hugo
6. Sue has an idea
7. A Job for Percy Pilbeam
8. The Storm Clouds Hover over Blandings
9. Enter Sue
10. A Shock for Sue
11. More Shocks for Sue
12. Activities of Beach the Butler
13. Cocktails before dinner
14. Swift thinking by the efficient Baxter
15. Over the telephone
16. Lovers' meeting
17. Spirited Conduct of Lord Emsworth
18. Painful Scene in a Bedroom
19. Gally takes matters in hand

Verdict: 7/10
Blandings is the kind of place the reader would most likely love to stay at and meet all these great characters that Wodehouse created. In this book Baxter, the ex-secretary of Lord Emsworth, is probably the best character because he has an understated role in the whole proceedings - it works because he's quite a serious character, hardworking, honest and dutiful, BUT, it's this dutiful instinct to Lady Constance that gets him into hot water. His mission is to steal the Honourable Galahad Threepwood's memoirs, but in the course of his stay at Blandings, he sends a compromising letter to the girl he thinks is Miss Myra Schoonmaker, discovers the miscreants behind the pig plot, ends up stuck under a bed, falls out of a window and his caravan gets used for pig storage. There's no explaining his way out of these things...poor Baxter...you do feel for his wounded soul, but there's no way of getting round the fact that he lends vital humour to the whole escapade.

Absolute best section is when Baxter is fetched out from under a bed by Lord Emsworth and Lady Constance asks him to explain. Emsworth retorts that the situation is obvious, to which the Honourable Galahad murmurs that he's not sure he's got to the bottom of it yet and wonders why the fellow would be under a bed, why there [at Blandings] at all? Very funny.

Characters
Lord Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth
The Empress of Blandings (previously in 'Pig-hoo-oo-ey!')
Lady Constance Keeble
The Honourable Galahad Threepwood, Lady Constance's and Lord Emsworth's brother and called Uncle Gally by niece Millicent
The Efficient Rupert J. Baxter, Lord Clarence Emsworth's former secretary
Butler Beach
Hugo Carmody, secretary to Lord Emsworth
Miss Millicent, niece to Lord Emsworth and Lady Constance and Lancelot's daughter
Ronald Overbury (Ronnie) Fish, nephew of Lord Emsworth and Lady Constance (previously in 'Money for Nothing'). Son of Julia Fish and Miles Fish, who was in the Brigade of Guards
Miss Sue Brown, chorus-girl and daughter of Dolly Henderson, a well-known music-hall singer and Jack Cotterleigh, an Irish guardsman
Bashford, Miss Sue Brown's building's porter
Miss Myra Schoonmaker, daughter of Johnny Schoonmaker, an American friend of Galahad's
Lady Julia Fish, Ronnie's formidable mother
Major-General Sir Miles Fish, C.B.O., Brigade of Guards
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam, detective (previously in 'Bill the Conqueror') and manager of the Argus Enquiry Agency
Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe of Matchingham Hall, neighbour
Mr Mortimer Mason, the senior partner in the firm of Mason and Saxby, Theatrical Enterprises Limited. Employer of Miss Sue Brown
Mac, guardian of the stage door at Sue Brown's theatre
McTeague, bouncer at Mario's restaurant
George Cyril Wellbeloved, Lord Emsworth's former pig-man
Pirbright, George Cyril's successor as pig-man
James the footman
Thomas the footman

1st Edition, 1929, hbk


1954, Penguin, pbk


1962, Penguin, pbk


1966, Penguin, pbk


1975, Penguin, pbk


1979, Barrie & Jenkins, hbk

Wodehouse, P. G. 'Very Good, Jeeves!', published in 1982 by Penguin Books in paperback, 252pp, ISBN 014001730. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1982, Penguin, pbk
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  • Very Good, Jeeves! [top]
    First published in 1930 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins Ltd in hardback, 312pp
    Published in 1957 in Great Britain by Penguin Books (1st Penguin Edition) in paperback
    Reprinted in 1959 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback
    Reprinted in 1962 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback
    Reprinted in 1964 in Great Britain by Penguin Books as a Peacock reprint edition
    Reprinted in 1966 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback
    Published on April 29, 1971 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback, 256pp, ISBN 0140011730
    Reprinted by Penguin in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981
    And published in 1982 by Penguin Books in paperback, 252pp, ISBN 0140011730. Cover by Ionicus & dedication to E. Phillips Oppenheim. Original UK retail price of the 1982 edition: £1.75 (UK); $4.50 (AUST); $3.50 (CAN); and $2.95 (US)

    Published on September 1, 2005 in Germany by Everyman in hardback with dustjacket, 304pp, ISBN 1841591424
    Kindle Edition published on March 26, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital
    Audio Download published by CSA Word on September 8, 2011, 4 hours, 5 minutes listening time, narrated by Martin Jarvis
    AudioCD published on April 5, 2011 by Audiogo, 6 CDs, narrated by Jonathan Cecil

Storyline: This book is a collection of Jeeves & Wooster short stories beginning with a mysterious message and a visit to the dreaded Aunt Agatha. Bertie Wooster is once again beset by difficulties that can only be resolved by the butler with the enormous brain, Jeeves. In fact, he is universally recognised as the man to get you out of a spot of bother.

Characters:
Bertie Wooster
Jeeves
Aunt Agatha (Gregson)
Cabinet Minister, The Right Hon. A. B. Filmer
Richard "Bingo" Little
Rosie
Aunt Agatha's spaniel, Robert
Spenser Gregson, Aunt Agatha's husband
Purvis (Agatha's butler)
Mr. Sipperley of The Mayfair Gazette, a.k.a 'Old Sippy'
Miss Gwendolen Moon, author of poem in said 'Mayfair Gazette'
Waterbury, Sipperley's old headmaster
Lady Wickham of Skeldings
Roberta Wickham, Lady Wickham's daughter (Bobbie Wickham)
Sir Roderick Glossop
Honoria Glossop (his daughter)
Tuppy Glossop (Sir Roderick's nephew)
Cora Bellinger (who Tuppy gets engaged to)
Beefy Bingham, who was at Oxford with Bertie and Tuppy. Beefy is a parson and runs a Lads' club for the local toughs in the East End of London
Aunt Dahlia (Mrs Travers)
Angela Travers, Mrs Travers' daughter and Bertie's cousin
Pop Blumenfeld & Blumenfeld junior
Lucius Pim
Beatrice Slingsby (Lucius's sister, married to Slingsby)
Alexander Slingsby of Slingsby's Superb Soups
Miss Mapleton, Aunt Agatha's old friend
Clementina (Bobbie Wickham's young cousin)
Oliver Randolph Sipperley (Young Sippy)
Lilian Gish
Thomas Gregson (son of Aunt Agatha)
Greta Garbo
Mr Anstruther (old friend of Aunt Dahlia's late father)
Lord and Lady Snettisham (Jane Snettisham)
Uncle Wilberforce
Uncle George Wooster (Bertie's Uncle - titled as Lord Yaxley)
Rosie M. Banks, a novelist who Bingo Little marries
Laura Pyke, old friend of Rosie
Miss Rhoda Platt, barmaid. Uncle George determines to marry her
Mrs. Maudie Wilberforce (ex-love of Uncle George)
Sir Reginald Witherspoon
Katherine Witherspoon (née Travers)
Colonel Dalgleish (and daughter)

Chapters: [as in the 1982 Penguin pbk]:
1. Jeeves and the impending doom
2. The inferiority complex of Old Sippy
3. Jeeves and the yule-tide spirit
4. Jeeves and the song of songs
5. Episode of the dog Mcintosh
6. The spot of art
7. Jeeves and the kid Clementina
8. The love that purifies
9. Jeeves and the old school chum
10. Indian summer of an uncle
11. The ordeal of young Tuppy

Chapter Synopses:
1. Jeeves and the Impending Doom
Bertie pops down to Aunt Agatha's place at Woollam Chersey, which is odd in itself. Bertie is far from her favourite nephew... . As it turns out Agatha wants Bertie to meet Cabinet Minister Mr. Filmer and make a good impression on him. To achieve this good impression, poor Bertie is banned from smoking, drinking, and from introducing any conversations from the theatre, billiard-table or bar.
Bertie discovers that Bingo Little is also at Agatha's place tutoring Bertie's cousin Thomas under the pretence that he doesn't know Bertie (otherwise Agatha would sack him!). Bingo is trying to earn money to cover up for the fact that he bet all the money Rosie (his girlfriend who sailed for America) left him to look after her Pekinese. But all is not plain sailing for poor Bingo; Thomas is turning out to be a nightmare and is planning revenge on Minister Filmer for reporting him for smoking - a move which is bound to get him (Bingo) fired. Let's just say that Thomas's plans involve an angry swan, Filmer, Bertie & Jeeves' intellect.

2. The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy
Bertie is in dispute over a vase with Jeeves, and lays down the law firmly about it before leaving to go and see Old Sippy (Sipplerly) of 'The Mayfair Gazette'. Sippy is in love with Gwendolen, but feels totally unworthy of her; he's also finding it difficult to say no to a budding contributor to his Gazette in the form of his former headmaster, Waterbury.

Bertie comes up with a plan to deal with the headmaster and the course of true love; Jeeves comes up with one too, but Bertie's not impressed and puts his own into action. Unfortunately, this involves a bag of flour and yes, you've guessed it, not everything goes according to plan...

3. Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit
Bertie is invited to spend the festive season at Skeldings by Lady Wickham and is warned by his Aunt Agatha to be on best behaviour because a distinguished guest will be there...Sir Roderick Glossop. This is bad news for Bertie, who had once been engaged to his daughter, Honoria.
Jeeves is miffed that they're no longer going to Monte Carlo and after getting the cold treatment, Bertie feels like he should do some explaining as to why they're at Skeldings: firstly Bertie wants to get revenge on Tuppy Glossop; and secondly he's in love with Roberta Wickham.

Bertie decides on a night time mission to get revenge on Tuppy, but as things would have it, comes face-to-face with Sir Roderick instead in a very amusing scene.

4. Jeeves and the song of songs
Tuppy Glossop descends on Bertie to give him the news that he (Tuppy) has got engaged to Cora Bellinger, BUT, she won't marry him if it turns out he's a practical joker.
Unfortunately for Tuppy, she's heard rumours of a practical joke at the Drones Club and Tuppy asks Bertie to take Cora on one side to deny the rumours of what happened.
Tuppy realises he has to impress Cora with his serious side (she's a serious person, hence the dislike of practical jokes) and to show this, he's arranged for her to sing at the Lads' club run by Beefy Bingham (a friend of Bertie & Tuppy's from Oxford) and what's more he's going to sing too.

To add to the complications, Tuppy has given Aunt Dahlia's daughter Angela the cold shoulder in favour of Cora, but Aunt Dahlia is not impressed and pays Bertie a visit, chiefly to get Jeeves to think of a way of breaking off relations between Tuppy and Cora. Jeeves dutifully sets to work in the way only he can...

5. Episode of the Dog McIntosh
Aunt Agatha has gone away on holiday and left her dog McIntosh, an Aberdeen terrier with Bertie and Jeeves, who have both grown rather fond of him. On the morning where this story starts, we find Bertie in bed reading his mail and finding the day is not quite his own-first of all, he has to have McIntosh back to his Aunt Agatha's place by the time she gets back in the evening. Secondly, Bobbie Wickham (Miss Roberta Wickham) is coming round to see Bertie, but not alone - she's bringing the son of an American theatre manager with her - Blumenfeld.

Bobbie's plan is to read her mother's new play to Pop Blumenfeld in Bertie's flat. Only trouble is Pop Blumenfeld value's Blumenfeld Junior's opinion on theatre matters as young as he is, so to keep the youngster sweet, Miss Wickham clinches the deal with the gift of a certain animal to the boy, much to Bertie's horror. Once again, Jeeves comes to the rescue...

6. The Spot of Art
Bertie is in love. So in love, that he cancels a cruise with Aunt Dahlia for the girl -Miss Gwladys Pendlebury, a painter. Aunt Dahlia is not impressed and points out to Bertie that Jeeves will not approve. She forecasts that whatever Bertie thinks, he will end up coming on the cruise because Jeeves will quietly make it happen! Miss Pendlebury has painted a portrait of Bertie and Aunt Dahlia forecasts that Jeeves, who doesn't like it, will accidentally finish that off too.

Unfortunately for Bertie, Miss Pendlebury is a bit accident prone with her motor car and knocks some gent over outside Bertie's flat, a certain Lucius Pim, whose sister is married to Slingsby of Slingsby's soups. The doctor recommends rest for Mr. Pim, who takes residence in Bertie's flat. This provides the background for all sorts of humourous misunderstandings and farce at its very best

7. Jeeves and the kid Clementina
Bertie goes down to Bingley-on-Sea for the annual Drones Club golf tournament, a place which has two major drawbacks. Firstly, Bertie crashes out of the golf tournament and secondly it's where Aunt Agatha's old friend Miss Mapleton lives and runs a girl's school (St. Monica's).

Bertie expresses clearly his intention to stay away from Miss Mapleton and her school, but unfortunately Bobbie Wickham has other plans for Bertie that will land him right there... It turns out that she's in Bingley-on-Sea to visit her cousin Clementina who's birthday it is and who attends St. Monica's.

Bobbie brings Clementina out to dinner with Jeeves and Bertie, but little do they realise that Clementina is supposed to be in bed in school, having been confined to her room by the teachers for adding sherbert to the ink pots. Trouble is, how are they going to get her back into school? Bobbie tells Bertie how to pull it off, but the plan involving a tree, piece of string, a conservatory and a flowerpot has large flaws, one of which is in the form of a policeman...

8. The love that purifies
Jeeves is down at Bognor for his two weeks' holiday and Bertie has gone to Aunt Dahlia's on invitation whilst Jeeves is away. Bertie walks straight into the middle of a betting contest between Dahlia and her guests Lord and Lady Snettisham.

The basis of the bet is this: Mr Anstruther, an old friend of Dahlia's late father is staying with her, but being of an elderly and frail disposition, he has offered the two boys in the house (Thomas Gregson, Aunt Agatha's son; and Bonzo, Dahlia's son) a prize of £5.00 for the best behaviour.

Aunt Dahlia thinks the outcome is a sure thing - Agatha's son will definitely lose and as a result she's bet the Snettishams that this will be the result and if she loses, then she will hand over her supreme chef Anatole to them. If Dahlia wins, then they have to pay her with their top quality kitchenmaid.

Trouble is both boys are in love - with stars of the silver screen- and are behaving themselves really well. Since time is running out and Thomas has gained bonus points from Mr. Anstruther for outstanding feats of goodness, it looks like Aunt Dahlia is about to lose Anatole. It's time for Jeeves, who has been recalled from holiday, to step in and use a secret weapon in the form of a golden curly haired boy called Sebastian Moon, brother to Miss Moon, young Sippy's new fiancée. Can Jeeves save the day before Uncle Thomas Travers returns home to find Anatole gone...?

9. Jeeves and the old school chum
Bingo Little is ecstatically happy, and so is Rosie Banks the novelist he has found married bliss with and it's all they can do to not address each other as "sweetie-lambkin!" and "Angel!"
Anyway, it's all very loving and Bertie finds it a pleasing enough atmosphere to make a return trip after chaperoning his Uncle George.

But everything has changed. Insert one diet-obsessed old friend of Rosie's into the picture by the name of Laura Pyke and you've got a recipe to make both Bingo Little and Bertie miserable all round. Only trouble is Rosie hangs on her every word, so how to weaken the influence of Laura? It takes a picnic, a broken-down car, hunger and some chivalrous and forthright upstanding behaviour from Bingo to restore the rose-tinted romance. And the power of Jeeves' brain proves its worth again.

10. Indian Summer of an Uncle
Uncle George is rediscovering the vim in life - he's all set on marrying a young waitress who he has met at his club called Miss Rhoda Platt, of Wisteria Lodge, East Dulwich. Bertie realises that the rest of the family will never swallow Uncle George's match, particularly Agatha. Moreover, Agatha will lay it on Bertie to fix, so Bertie instructs Jeeves to pack quickly before Agatha arrives. Too late, the doorbell rings and Bertie is landed in the middle of it, required to visit the girl and to try and buy her off. Needless to say, he doesn't relish this and rather bungles it, meeting only with the girl's Aunt, friendly, but dressed vividly.

Returning home, Agatha is incensed and orders Bertie to repeat his mission, but this time be successful. Jeeves needless to say has a plan and it's good, despite Agatha's dismissal. The vivid Aunt may just come in useful...

11. The Ordeal of Young Tuppy
Bertie decides to spend his Christmas holidays at the house of Sir Reginald Witherspoon (husband to Aunt Dahlia's husband's younger sister Katherine) in order to enjoy the easy atmosphere of the place & good hospitality and of course to get his revenge on Tuppy Glossop. Tuppy has been making waves down at the Witherspoon household, chasing after a dog-girl, and his love for the girl is behind him sending a cryptic telegram to Bertie to bring down an Irish Water-Spaniel with him and football boots...?!

His pursuit is also behind Aunt Dahlia making a sudden descent on Bertie to sort Tuppy out - Katherine wrote her a letter about Tuppy's amorous advances which infuriated her because Tuppy is supposed to be engaged to her daughter Angela. Bertie and Jeeves go down to the house to see what's afoot and discover Tuppy devoutly following the girl around. Not only that, he's got himself involved in the rugby match between Upper Bleaching and Hockley-cum-Meeston to show his prowess off to the dog-girl.

Bertie has a plan to get Tuppy back with Angela and with some modifications and additions by Jeeves, the story is all set for a funny and well thought-out conclusion

1957, Penguin, pbk


1959, Penguin, pbk


1962, Penguin, pbk


1971, Penguin, pbk


1998, Penguin, pbk


2005, Everyman, hbk


2008, paperback reprint


Audiobook, Narrator: Martin Jarvis. Vol 1


Audiobook, Narrator: Martin Jarvis. Vol 2


AudioCD (physical product). Narrator: Jonathan Cecil


Kindle Edition


2008, Arrow, pbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'If I Were You', FIRST EDITION, published in 1931 in hardback by HerbertJenkins, 280pp. Condition: acceptable (fair), with some dusty dirtiness to exterior and a small piece of the top corner of pages 111-120 is missing (no loss of text or readability). A nice, but worn copy. Price: £25.00, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1931, Herbert Jenkins
In stock, click image above, or price to buy for £25.00, fair condition (not including p&p)

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  • If I Were You [top]
    First published in 1931 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins Ltd in hardback, with dustjacket, 280pp, no ISBN

    Reprinted in 1940 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, in hardback with dustjacket
    Reprinted in December 1958 by Hutchinson, 160pp
    Reprinted on October 31, 1991 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, 160pp, ISBN 0140124535

    Published on May 31, 2013 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback, 224pp, ISBN 1841591874

Storyline: Anthony, fifth Earl of Droitwich, was engaged to be married to Violet Waddington, the daughter of Waddington of Waddington's Ninety-Seven Soups. Unfortunately, however, Tony's old nurse, Ma Price, turned up at a most inopportune moment with her son, Syd, a gentleman whose Socialistic eye could forsee tumbrils rumbling along Piccadilly, and Ma Price knew all about the skeleton in the Droitwich cupboard. Influenced by a weak heart, port wine and a longing for affection, she revealed her secret with the result that there was chaos in the aristocratic family and Tony's engagement was summarily ended.

The situation is handled in the truly irresistible Wodehouse style that cannot fail to draw loud chuckles and many broad smiles

1st Edition, Herbert Jenkins, 1931, hbk


2013, Everyman's Library, hbk
Wodehouse, P. G. 'Big Money', published in 1991 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, 21st printing, ISBN 014000937X. Condition: new. Price: £2.20, not including post and packing, which is Amazon UK's standard charge (currently £2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
21st printing, c1990s, Penguin, pbk
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  • Big Money [top]
    First published in 1931 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, in hardback with dustjacket, 8vo, 314pp
    First published in 1931 in the United States by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, 316pp
    Reprinted in 1935 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, in hardback with dustjacket
    First published in 1953 in Penguin Books and reprinted at least 22 times, paperback, 270pp

    Reprinted on February 22, 1973 by Penguin, 288pp, ISBN 014000937X
    Published on May 18, 2007 by Everyman's Library in Germany, 304pp, ISBN 1841591513
    Published on October 2, 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow Books in paperback, 304pp, ISBN 0099514222
    Kindle Edition published on April 5, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital
    Audiobook Download published on March 16, 2011 by Audible Studios, 8 hours and 7 minutes running time, narrated by Jonathan Cecil
    AudioCD published on November 12, 2013 in the UK by Audiogo in AudioCD format

Storyline: This book features many familiar and comfortable comic devices and places used in previous and future (as in still to come in 1931!) Wodehouse stories such as the Drones Club and the pleasant, leafy, apparently boringly monotonous suburb of Valley Fields, which is anything but quiet and tranquil with all the criminal activity and subterfuge going on!

The main characters are Godfrey a.k.a. "Biscuit" (Lord Biskerton, son and heir to the 6th Earl of Hoddesdon), and his one-time inseparable friend John Beresford Conway, a.k.a. "Berry", both of whom open the story dining in the coffee room at the Drones Club, with 3 years of separation to explain away and exchange banter over.

Berry is living down in Valley Fields in the overly protective care of his former nurse Hannah Wisdom, who's never really got used to not looking after him, and makes sure he wears his winter woollies to keep out the cold... Berry has no money, but has just got a job as private secretary to the American Financier Frisby on recommendation from his former employer. Biscuit is surprised at Berry's job and somewhat horrified to find that Berry knows secretarial skills like shorthand, eliciting the comment that this would only have happened with Berry really being truly up against it! Poor old Berry had initially been indulged by a Rich Aunt, who sent him to school and Cambridge, which were formative years for the developing Berry. Little did he realise that said aunt was also a bit of a sucker for any scam or speculation going and had been going through her money like a hamster through its feed tray - filling up with anything and everything. Of course when she died, she left Berry with plentiful shares in bogus companies, none of which seemed to have the slightest value...or did they? At least one dodgy company passed onto Berry is going to play a big part in this book and in his work and love-life! Unfortunately, the Dream Come True mine doesn't have anything in it worth mining...or does it?

Berry is ashamed to admit to Biscuit that he's not been mixing much with Biscuit and friends because of the lack of readies; but Biscuit is amazed at this and it starts to become quite obvious that Biscuit's financial status may actually be worse than Berry's...Biscuit is broke, his father is penniless and his Aunt Vera's broke too. It's not a happy picture!

Whilst Berry is heading back to work, his boss T. Paterson Frisby, the aforementioned American financier is on the phone to his sister Josephine Moon, who is calling from New York. She's at her wits end with trying to get her daughter Ann Moon to marry someone nice, or at least acceptable. Since she's turned one suitor down and told another she'd only marry him if he hit a policeman (a classic Wodehouse ruse - think Bertie Wooster), Josephine is sending her over to London in desperation where the hope is she'll fall in love with someone related to a Lord, or Earl or something like that. It falls on Frisby to organise a chaperon (with connections) for Ann and his first move is to organise an advertisement with Berry taking the notes. Berry suggests that Frisby call in Lady Vera Mace, Biscuit's hard-up aunt who promptly gets the job, having made quite a favourable impression on Frisby. So much so in fact that his dyspepsia settles down for the afternoon. Not often you can say that, is it?!

It's at the point that Lady Vera gets the chaperoning job that the other strand of the storyline gets introduced - the mine called 'The Dream Come True'. Berry asks Frisby for advice on selling the mine that his aunt passed on to him. Little does he realise that Frisby knows a lot more about this mine than he's letting on and that J.B. Hoke, the character Frisby puts him in touch with, is less than trustworthy.

And so the scene is set for Ann Moon to drift like a delicious dream into the lives of Biscuit and Berry...and you might think that when she gets engaged to Biscuit, that the matter of her finding the love of her life is closed...but you would be wrong, particularly given both her and Biscuit's inclination to get engaged to two people at the same time; and Ann's fondness for secret service agents and fast car chases...it's a P.G. Wodehouse classic recipe for outrageous misunderstandings mixed with a lot of fun and laughter!

Verdict: 7/10
Quite a slow starter in the first few pages, the story really picked up pace at the restaurant scene at the Berkeley when Biscuit is dressed up in a dark wig and black beard so that he can continue to dine in style without his creditors recognising him. Wodehouse contrives to have all the characters he needs in the same place at the same time, so not only is Biscuit there, but his father Lord Hoddesdon and Ann; not forgetting Berry, who's gone there to book a table for supper for Frisby (who's off for a day out with Lady Vera Mace...). There are some classic lines such as when Ann asks Lord Hoddesdon what Biscuit was like as a boy and he answers "'Oh, the usual grubby little brute...'"!
Berry Conway is characterised really well in this story - Wodehouse has linked his character and that of Ann Moon's quite expertly - she likes adventurous, exciting men and Berry is not your average young man - he has an aptitude for seeing things differently and jumping in feet first for a bit of adventure, particularly when he leaps into Ann's car and directs her to follow the strange fellow in the beard (Biscuit in disguise!), who he thinks is the head of a cocaine ring, name The Sniffer (as tracked by Scotland Yard).
A favourite episode in the book is when Lord Hoddesdon goes down to the leafy suburb of Valley Fields (reluctantly) in order to try and dig his son out of his hideaway (Biscuit has gone there to hide from his creditors with the excuse that he has mumps) before Ann gives up waiting for him and goes off with another man
. He makes the mistake of asking for directions off a man in a cloth cap outside a pub, who has taken an instant dislike to Lord Hoddesdon's grey top-hat and needs to express his feelings about the hat to Lord Hoddesdon. Getting away from the man, he unfortunately then asks a small boy for directions only to get hit by a flint between the shoulder blades upon following them. The boy is the man's son...and the situation can only get worse in true Wodehouse style when Lord Hoddesdon decides to reward the boy with a bit of smacking him round the head and a kick in the pants.
Overall, this book is well-worth reading and very funny in the typical gentle Wodehouse way. I even learnt something from this book about how to get the upper hand in a tricky situation - just approach the person you need to get some leverage over and simple say to them conspiratorially 'I know your secret...'! It worked for Biscuit!
Favourite quote: "It is ever the instinct of the proletariat, when excluded from any goal by a sheet of glass, to throw bricks."

Characters:
[in approximate order of importance]
-"Biscuit", Godfrey, Lord Biskerton
-"Berry", John Beresford Conway, who lives with his nurse in The Nook, Mulberry Grove, Valley Fields, SE21. The Nook is next door to Peacehaven, which Biscuit comes to live in when on the run from his creditors...
-George, 6th Earl of Hoddesdon, Biscuit's father, ancestral home in Edgeling Court, County of Sussex
-Lady Vera Mace, Biscuit's Aunt (his father's sister)
-T. Paterson Frisby - American financier and boss of Berry
-Josephine Moon, Frisby's sister
-Ann Margaret Moon, Frisby's niece, Josephine's daughter
-Major Flood Smith, neighbour to Berry and Hannah in Valley Fields
-"Kitchie", Katherine Valentine, niece to Major Flood Smith, visiting her uncle from America. She came over on the same boat as Ann Moon, who she made friends with on the journey over. Major Smith lives in the house called Castlewood next door to Peacehaven in Valley Fields; when Biscuit arrives at Peacehaven for the first time, he finds Katherine tidying up his neglected garden...
-Mr. Robbins, Frisby's lawyer of Robbins, Robbins, Robbins and Robbins Solicitors and Commissions for Oaths
-J.B. Hoke (the 'B' stands for Bernard) a disreputable man who Frisby hires for solving problems...willingness to oblige is one of Mr. Hoke's outstanding qualities...
Mr. Bellamy, J.B. Hoke's lawyer
-Captain Kelly - another character of dubious repute, friend of J.B. Hoke
-Hannah Wisdom, Berry's former nurse, still looking after him in Valley Fields...
-Toddy Malling - chaperone's Ann Moon at Lady Bassinger's ball in Biscuit's absence
-"Bart", Sir Herbert Bassinger - Lady Bassinger's husband; interrogates Berry when he gatecrashes the ball
-Cloth-capped man in Valley Fields. Takes offence at Lord Hoddesdon's hat
-'Erbert, the cloth-capped man's son - joins in with his father's antics towards Lord Hoddesdon
-Sergeant Finbow, former police constable who proposes marriage to Berry's former nurse
-Egbert and Percy, two swans inhabiting the ornamental pond opposite Berry's house. They might only be two swans, but their bark is as bad as their bite

1st Edition, 1931, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1973, Penguin, pbk


2007, Everyman's Library, hbk


2008, Arrow, pbk


Kindle Edition


2011, Audiobook, Audible, narrated by Jonathan Cecil


2007, Blackstone Publishing, Audiobook (physical product), narrated by Jonathan Cecil
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Enter Psmith', published in 1950 in Great Britain by A. & C. Black, 248pp, hardback with dustjacket. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1950, A. & C. Black
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  • Enter Psmith [top]
    A.k.a Mike and Psmith
    First published in February 1935 in Great Britain by A. & C. Black, in hardback with dustjacket, 247pp
    Reprinted June and December 1935
    Published in 1936 by A. L. Burt in hardback with dustjacket
    Reprinted in July 1940 by A. &C. Black, in hardback with dustjacket
    Reprinted in 1950 in Great Britain in hardback with dustjacket by A. & C. Black, 248pp

Storyline: Enter Psmith is the self-contained story, originally published as part of 'Mike', the first book about Mike Jackson, cricketing genius. At the end of the first part of that book, Mike Jackson is taken away from his beloved school Wrykyn due to his continued terrible performance at the school (apart from in cricket), as evidenced by his latest school report ("'French bad; conduct disgraceful-'" and much to that effect). Mike's father sends him to the inferior Sedleigh school, which he naturally deeply resents; and it is there that he first meets Psmith on his first day. Psmith is also a new boy, super annuated from Eton. From this point Psmith dominates the scene in a gently and beautifully humorous story. Look out for the episode where rival house master Downing is looking for a shoe spattered with red paint in Mike and Psmith's house (headed by Mr. Outwood). Psmith is in his absolute element. He is also a very loyal friend to Mike and this more than adequately pads out his character. 'Enter Psmith' can also be found called 'Mike and Psmith' in other editions

1st Edition, A & C Black, hbk


1950, A & C Black reprint, hbk
Wodehouse, P. G. 'Summer Moonshine', published in 1972 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback,
1972, Penguin, pbk
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  • Summer Moonshine [top]
    First published in 1937 in the United States by Doubleday, Doran and Company in hardback with dustjacket
    First published in 1938 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, in hardback with dustjacket, 312pp
    First published in 1966 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, Penguin No. 2547, 237pp
    Reprinted in 1972 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, 237pp, ISBN 0140025472. Original UK retail price of this edition: UK - £0.35; Australia - $1.20; New Zealand - $1.20; and Canada - $1.50. Cover illustration by Ionicus

    Published on October 2, 2008 in Great Britain in paperback, 336pp, ISBN 0099514168
    Audiobook Download published on December 24, 2008 by Audible; Listening Time of 7hrs, 48 minutes; narrated by Jonathan Cecil
    Kindle Edition published on May 27, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 292pp
    Published on 13th Feb 2013 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 320pp, ISBN 184159122X

    AudioCD published on June 9, 2015 by Blackstone Audiobooks. Narrated by Jonathan Cecil

Storyline: Set in glorious Berkshire in the country seat of Sir Buckstone Abbott at Walsingford Hall, all is not well in the Abbott household. Sir Buckstone is having money troubles, whilst the rest of the household are having difficulties of a different sort, mostly related to their love lives.

Sir Buckstone has taken steps to bring more money in - he's got paying guests enjoying traditional Buckstone hospitality, he's trying to sell the mansion to the Princess Dwornitzchek (wealthy stepmother to his paying guest Tubby Vanringham), and he's published his memoirs...only trouble is the publisher is a bit unorthodox and has suddenly billed him for office expenses - in total, 96 pounds, 3 shillings and 11 pence. Buck despatches his daughter Jane to London to negotiate away the bill and the trip is an unqualified success in many ways - she meets a charming young man, Joe Vanringham, who spontaneously cancels the debt and falls instantly in love with her, proposing marriage over lunch! Naturally, for a man in this deep, he spends the remaining pages of the book pursuing the love of his life back to the Walsingford pad, where his brother Tubby Vanringham is happily also residing.

Tubby provides Joe with a convenient entrance into the Walsingford set, just at the point when Lady Abbott's brother Samuel Bullpitt turns up from America. Trouble is Sam is a process server and whilst the visit might seem like a cosy family get together with his sister after a long gap, he's got a job to do and it's one he enjoys - he's there to serve papers on Tubby Vanringham, who is being sued for breach of promise by Sir Buckstone's secretary Miss Prudence Whittaker.

Wodehouse shows off his usual exemplary talents in creating humorous and farcical situations for his characters - note the houseboat Mignonette in this story, the Adrian Peake character (rival lover for Jane's attentions and bit of a weak love rat) and the missing clothes episode.

Verdict: 5/10. Not laugh out loud - in fact it feels like a rushed "filler" book, by which I mean that it feels like it was written to order, i.e. Wodehouse had a certain number of books to produce for the publisher and this was one of the end products. The books has some good bits, but the humour is really strained and poor characterisation of the key figures in the book makes it difficult for the reader to empathise with them

Characters:
Sir Buckstone Abbott, master of Walsingford Hall (background to most of the action in the book)
Jane Abbott, Sir Buckstone's daughter
Mrs. Alice Abbott, wife of Buck (Sir Buckstone), and called "Toots" by her husband
Mr. Sam Bulpitt, brother to Lady Abbott and a plasterer (process server) by trade
Mr. Theodore "Tubby" Vanringham, a stout young American and younger brother of Joe Vanringham
Joe Vanringham, brother to Tubby and successful playwright of an unflattering and popular play about his stepmother the Princess...
Prudence Whittaker, Sir Buckstone's secretary
Pollen, Sir Buckstone's butler
Mr. J. Mortimer Busby - publisher
Miss Gwenda Gray, star author on Mr. Busby's books
Mabel Purvis - mooted dining companion for Jane Abbott whilst in London. Mabel was once a president of the Debating Society
The Princess Von und Zu Dwornitzchek - stepmother to Joe and Tubby (had married their late father Mr. Franklin Vanringham)
Mr. Spelvin - late first husband to the Princess, from whom she inherited a large share in a fish-glue business...
Adrian Peake, fiancé to Jane Abbott and the Princess Dwornitzchek. Described as a gigolo and a sponger by Tubby!
J. B. Attwater, proprietor of the Goose and Gander public house in Walsingford Market Town
Mr Elmer Chinnery, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Mrs Folsom, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Colonel Percival Tanner, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Mr. Waugh-Bonner, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Mrs. Shepley, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Mr. Profitt, paying guest at Walsingford Hall
Mr. Billing, paying guest at Walsingford Hall

1st US Edition, 1937, Doubleday hbk


1st UK Edition, 1938, Herbert Jenkins hbk


1966, Penguin pbk


2008, Arrow pbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'The Code of the Woosters', published in 1953 in Great Britain by Penguin Books, in paperback, 238pp. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access a prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1953, Penguin, pbk
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  • The Code of the Woosters [top]
    First published in 1938 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in hardback with dustjacket, 298pp
    Published in 1953 in Penguin Books in the orange & white banded Penguin Fiction colours in paperback, 238pp

    Published in January 1997 in Great Britain by Compass Press, in hardback large print edition, 312pp, ISBN 0753155141
    Published on April 28, 2000 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 224pp, ISBN 1841591009

    Audiobook Download published on July 22, 2005 by Audible, complete and unabridged, 7 hours, 1 minute listening time, read by Jonathan Cecil
    Published on May 1, 2008 by Arrow in paperback, 304pp, ISBN 0099513757
    Kindle Edition published on Mar 26, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 290pp
    Audiobook published on November 17, 2011 by Canongate CSA Audio, abridged, on 4 CDs, listening time 5 hours. Read by Martin Jarvis

Storyline: Sir Watkyn Bassett wants Aunt Dahlia's cook, Anatole and has been trying to steal him away. Uncle Tom wants a cow creamer from an antique shop in the Brompton Road, but when Bertie gets there to pick it up, Sir Watkyn Bassett and Roderick Spode are already there. Bertie trips over the shop cat taking the creamer outside to look at it more closely and flies out the door, leading Sir Watkyn to think he's stealing things again (bag snatching was what Bertie was last accused of...!). Bassett and Spode call the police and Bertie takes off.

Meanwhile at Totleigh in the Wold, the Bassett place, a rift has occurred between Gussie and Madeline and Gussie telegrams Bertie for help. Jeeves recommends heading to Totleigh Towers and Bertie gives in. Unfortunately Stiffy has something she wants him to do for her; and Madeline thinks the pain of seeing her will be too much for Bertie (she thinks he's still in love with her). Aunt Dahlia has also been pressing Bertie to go because Bassett has bought the cow creamer and Aunt Dahlia wants to steal it, or rather, she wants Bertie to steal it... .

Stiffy Byng, Sir Watkyn's niece, is secretly engaged to Harold Pinker. To get Sir Watkyn on side about the marriage, she wants Bertie to steal the cow creamer and Harold to appear as the victorious crime fighter retrieving it for Sir Watkyn, after which he will feel inclined to endow a vicarage on Harold and Stephanie (Stiffy). To add to the complications, there's a little matter of Stiffy trying to get Harold to steal Constable Oates' helmet to get revenge on him.

Bertie refuses to do Stiffy's bidding, but she has something over him -she's got a certain notebook of Gussie's where he has noted down all the things he can think of which expose Sir Watkyn and Spode to the contempt of their fellow men. If Bertie doesn't steal the cow creamer for her and Harold, Sir Watkyn gets the book... . Only trouble is, Spode warns Bertie that if the cow creamer so much as disappears, Bertie gets beaten to a jelly. Time for Jeeves to apply that giant brain to the situation and rescue Bertie... .

Main characters:
Jeeves
Bertie Wooster
Gussie Fink-Nottle, also known as spinkbottle and 'Fathead'
Madeline Bassett (Gussie is about to wed Madeline)
Sir Watkyn Bassett, father of Madeline
Roderick Spode, a seven foot tall, six foot wide monster of a man (according to Bertie)
Aunt Dahlia (Mrs Travers), inhabitant of Brinkley Court
Uncle Tom (Aunt Dahlia's husband)
Anatole (Aunt Dahlia's supreme cook)
Stiffy Byng
The Reverend Harold P. Pinker ('Stinker')
An 18th Century cow creamer
The dog Bartholomew
Constable Eustace Oates

1st Edition, 1938, hbk


1953, Penguin, pbk


2018, Arrow, pbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime', published in 1988 in Great Britain in paperback, 223pp, ISBN 014000971X. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access a prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1988, Penguin, pbk
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Wodehouse, P.G. 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime', published by Penguin Books in 1966, 224pp, paperback. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access a prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
1966, Penguin
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  • Uncle Fred in the Springtime [top]
    First published in 1939 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, hardcover, 312pp
    First published in 1954 in Penguin Books (1st Penguin Edition), 223pp
    Reprinted in 1961 in Penguin Books
    Reprinted in 1966 in Penguin Books, paperback, 224pp, including cover design of a picture of Lord Emsworth (Sir Ralph Richardson, shown left) in the BBC TV series 'The World of Wodehouse', a TV series which also starred Meriel Forbes, Stanley Holloway and Jack Radcliffe; produced by Michael Mills. Cover photograph by Morris Newcombe.
    Also reprinted by Penguin in 1972, 1976, 1978
    Published on May 31, 1979 by Penguin in paperback, 224pp, ISBN 0140009337
    Reprinted again by Penguin in 1980, 1981 (twice), 1983 and 1986
    Reprinted in 1988 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback, 223pp, ISBN 014000971X. Cover illustration by Ionicus (shown left). Original UK retail price of this edition: UK-£2.50; Australia-$7.95; N.Z-$10.99; Canada-$5.95; and the US-$3.95

    Published on April 15, 2004, in Germany by Everyman's Library, 288pp, ISBN 1841591300
    Audiobook Download published on September 12, 2005 by Audible, complete and unabridged, 7 hours and 23 minutes listening time. Read by Jonathan Cecil

    Published on May 1, 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow in paperback, 288pp
    Audiobook (abridged) published on November 28, 2008 by Canongate CSA Audio, on 4 CDs with 5 hours listening time.
    Kindle Edition published on September 15, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 258pp
    Published on July 4, 2013 in Great Britain by Arrow in paperback, 288pp, ISBN 0099590735

See also related Uncle Fred titles:
1948. Uncle Dynamite
1961. Service with a Smile

Storyline: Uncle Fred is spreading sweetness and light and assuming false identities at Blandings Castle in this hilariously contrived, and entertaining comedy. The Duke of Dunstable has settled himself at Blandings Castle and declares war on a fellow whistling the Bonny Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond outside his bedroom window at his assumed home. The Duke arms himself with eggs to deal with this spot of bother, but as you can guess, when he comes to launch them, the intended target is not the culprit...

He also wants to get rid of Lord Emsworth's pig, the "Empress of Blandings", which the Duke insists is responsible for Lord Emsworth's eccentric behaviour and the root of all his troubles.
The Duke's egg-throwing convinces Lady Constance that a brain specialist would help the Duke and she despatches Emsworth to London to fetch Sir Roderick Glossop (you'll recognise him from Jeeves & Wooster stories) to come up and give an opinion. Emsworth has other ideas and goes to see Lord Ickenham ("Uncle Fred")

Pongo Twistleton has a bit of a gambling debt (beyond his control of course!) and his friend Horace has gone and got his engagement to Pongo's sister Valerie broken off by hiring PI Claude Pott to keep an eye on her in Le Touquet, which Valerie is non-too impressed by. Horace doesn't help the situation by going dancing with Polly Pott, his dancing instructor, to the Bohemian Ball.

Ricky meanwhile is in the same position as Pongo-he needs money to buy an onion soup bar in Piccadilly, which is all the rage..., so that he can make a real go of things with Polly. But he's already in his uncle's, the Duke's, bad books for writing poetry and the onion soup idea makes the Duke want to disembowel him. Ricky is non too convinced that the Duke will be impressed with his choice of girl-Polly doesn't really conform with the Duke's ironclad views of life.

Into all these troubles comes Uncle Fred, and right from the start, he's spreading sweetness and light big-time, and the humour is at full gear with Pongo saying "Ha!" quite a lot and fearful of a repeat of that day with Uncle Fred at the Dog Races. Read it and laugh! A lot!

Characters:
Frederick Altamount Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, "Uncle Fred" to Pongo and Valerie
Pongo and Valerie Twistleton -brother and sister
Horace Pendlebury-Davenport of Bloxham Mansions
Ricky Gilpin, Horace's cousin
Polly Pott (daughter of Claude Pott, and beloved of "Ricky")
Uncle Alaric ("Duke of Dunstable"), Horace's eccentric, brusque uncle
Rupert Baxter (Duke of Dunstable's secretary, formerly Lord Emsworth's secretary)
Claude Pott (a.k.a "Mustard Pott", private investigator hired by Horace to check up on Valerie Twistleton, Pongo's sister)
Clarence (9th Earl of Emsworth)-"Lord Emsworth" of Blandings Castle
Lady Constance Keeble-Clarence's sister-of Blandings Castle
Lord George Bosham, nephew to Lady Constance Keeble
Beach, Lady Constance's butler
Sir Roderick Glossop, "brain specialist"

1st Edition, 1939, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1966, Penguin Books, pbk


1979, Penguin, pbk


2008, Arrow, pbk


Wodehouse, P.G. 'Ring for Jeeves', publihsed in 1990 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback, 214pp, ISBN 0140281185. Condition: Good, clean copy with slight crease to front cover lower corner. Some slight tanning to internal pages. Price: £1.95, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1999, Penguin, pbk
In stock, click to buy for £1.99, not including p&p, which is Amazon UK's standard charge (currently £2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers
)

Wodehouse, P.G. 'Ring for Jeeves', published in 1983 in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton in their Coronet edition, 187pp, ISBN 0340332107. Condition: good condition with some slight tanning to front cover and internal pages (browning effect from ageing). Price: £1.25, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1983, Coronet, pbk
In stock, click to buy for £1.25, not including p&p

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  • Ring for Jeeves [top]
    First published in 1953 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in hardback
    Published on November 4, 1971 in Great Britain by Sphere, in paperback, 192pp, ISBN 0722192630
    Published in 1983 in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton in a Coronet paperback edition, 187pp, ISBN 0340332107. Cover illustration by Julia Whatley
    Published on May 27, 1999 by Penguin in paperback, 224pp, ISBN 0140281185
    Published on April 15, 2004 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 240pp, ISBN 1841591319

    Audiobook Download (unabridged) published on August 29, 2005 by Audible. Narrator: Nigel Lambert; listening time 6 hours, 49 minutes
    Published on August 7, 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow in paperback, 256pp, ISBN 0099513927
    Kindle Edition published on May 27, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 256pp
    Audiobook published on July 1, 2013 by Canongate CSA Audio, 4 CDS, 5 hours listening time, abridged, read by Martin Jarvis

Storyline: Note - this comedy does not feature Bertie Wooster.

The events that led William Egerton Bamfylde Ossingham Belfry (Bill, Lord Rowcester), ninth Earl of Rowcester, to assume the name of Honest Patch Perkins, a false moustache and a career as a bookeeper were quite straightforward. Bill's uncle died and as his heir, he took on the title and Rowcester Abbey, and a heap of liabilities...not to mention the need to finance his upcoming wedding to Jill Wyvern, the Chief Constable's daughter.

Needing cash, and sort of accepting that he might need to work, he set about choosing a profession. That of bookie struck him as a possibility and Honest Patch Perkins with the walrus moustache and patch over the left eye was born, with the slightly unwilling assistance of Jeeves.

Everything went swimmingly until Captain C. G. Brabazon-Biggar, a.k.a. "Bwana Biggar", that redoubtable big-game hunter, placed a double and won three thousand pounds, two shillings and sixpence. Which was rather more than Honest Patch possessed. So he disappeared with the Captain in hot pursuit.

Captain Biggar is not to be put off - he's got his money to collect; and luckily he's already collected the licence plate number of the miscreant he's chasing! This leads him to the environs of Rowcester Abbey, where his car breaks down before he can reach Patch's lordly lair. Seeking refreshment in the form of a beer, he bumps into the love of his life, Rosalinda Banks.

Rosalinda is also on the way to Rowcester Abbey, but for a very different reason -she's looking to buy it. Having met Rosalinda in New York, Lord Rowcester's sister Monica "Moke" Carmoyle performed the sales talk of a lifetime on her, persuading her to come and look at the place. Bill of course doesn't know she's coming. Neither of course does he realise that Captain Biggar is also on the way and duly, they both turn up. Hilariously, Rosalinda is an old flame of Bill's and her familiarity with him takes some explaining to fiancée Jill...not to mention the big game hunter who realises that he's found his quarry...

So, the scene is set for a romp of misunderstandings, tricky situations and classic farce and it takes a few patches of despair (the head in hands with groaning type), broken engagements, thefts and attempted thefts and good old fashioned intelligent suggestions from Jeeves to bring the story to a winning end

Characters [in order of appearance]:

  • Captain C. G. Brabazon-Biggar, a.k.a. "Bwana Biggar", "the white hunter" and "bimbo"
  • Rosalinda Banks, a.k.a. Rosie. Former married names: Rosalinda Bessemer and Mrs. Spottsworth. Mrs Banks talks to her former husbands at the ouija board
  • Clifton Bessemer, pulp paper magnate and Rosalinda's first husband
  • Alexis. B. Spottsworth, millionaire sportsman and big game hunter; Rosalinda's second husband
  • William Egerton Bamfylde Ossingham Belfry (Bill, Lord Rowcester), ninth Earl of Rowcester; and also known as "Honest Patch Perkins", the silver ring bookmaker. Rosalinda knows him as "Billiken"
  • Major Augustus "Tubby" Frobisher and the Subahdar - pals of Captain Biggar, who he refers to, well, continually... . There's also Doc and Squiffy
  • Monica "Moke" Carmoyle, Bill Rowcester's sister
  • Sir Roderick "Rory" Carmoyle, Monica's husband
  • Jill Wyvern, Bill's fiancée and daughter of the Chief Constable
  • Jeeves
  • Freddie Widgeon (mentioned)
  • Pongo Twistleton (mentioned)
  • Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps (mentioned)
  • Pomona, Mrs Spottsworth's dog
  • Colonel Aubrey Wyvern, Chief Constable and Jill's father
  • Bulstrode - butler at Wyvern Hall
  • Evangeline Trelawny - the cook at Wyvern Hall
  • Mrs Mary Jane Piggott, Bill's chef at Rowcester Abbey
  • Ellen Tallulah French, Bill's housemaid at Rowcester Abbey
  • Percy Wellbeloved, Bill's gardener
  • Cora Rita Rockmetteller, wife of Tubby Frobisher
1st Edition, 1953, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1971, Sphere, pbk


1983, Coronet, pbk


2004, Everyman's Library, hbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Uncle Dynamite' published on  31st January 1991 by Penguin Books, 250pp, ISBN 0140124497. Condition: Very good condition, clean & tidy copy. Price: £4.00, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
31st Jan 1991, Penguin, paperback
In stock, click to buy for £4.00, not including p&p

Wodehouse, P. G. 'Uncle Dynamite', published in 1966 in Great Britain in paperback, pp.250, no ISBN. Condition: good, but vintage with rubbing and mild creasing to the cover edges and corners. The internal pages are clean and tidy, but foxed. Price: £3.00, not including post and packing
1966, Penguin, pbk
In stock. Good condition, Penguin, pbk, £3.00

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  • Uncle Dynamite [top]
    1st Edition published on October 22, 1948 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins
    First published on December 3, 1948 in the US by Didier & Co
    First published in 1966 by Penguin Books, paperback, 256pp. Cover illustration by Pat Williams. Original UK retail price 4/6 (4 shillings and sixpence)
    Reprinted on January 31, 1991 by Penguin Books in paperback (3rd printing since 1966), 250pp, ISBN 0140124497. Cover illustration by Chris Riddell. Original UK retail price of 1991 edition: UK-£4.50; Canada-$6.99; U.S.A:$5.95
    Audiobook Download published on May 10, 2005 by Audible, unabridged, 7 hours 45 minutes listening time, narrated by Jonathan Cecil
    Published on September 7, 2006 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 320pp, ISBN 1841591475
    Published on August 7, 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow, in paperback, ISBN 0099514087

    Kindle Edition published on July 15, 2009 by Cornerstone Digital, 320pp
    AudioCD / MP3 CD published by Brilliance Audio on June 23, 2015, narrated by Phil Gigante and Nick Archer

See also related Uncle Fred titles:
1939. Uncle Fred in the Springtime
1948. Uncle Dynamite
1961. Service with a Smile

Characters:
Reginald "Pongo" Twistleton- had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Frederick Altamount Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, "Uncle Fred"-had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Sally Painter
William Oakshott (Bill Oakshott)
Lady Emily Bostock, Sir Aylmer Bostock ("Mugsy")
Hermione Bostock
Constable Potter (Harold Potter) -one of the policemen who had arrested Uncle Fred and Pongo at the Dog Races, mentioned in Uncle Fred in the Springtime and this book
Elsie Bean (servant in the Bostock household and romantically linked to Constable Potter)
Major Brabazon Plank

Storyline: This book is Wodehouse at his best-very funny and endearing, with Uncle Fred spreading sweetness and light all around with the most amusing results and a good outcome for Sally Painter, Pongo, Bill Oakshott and Hermione Bostock. Even the local law, Constable Potter and Elsie Bean benefit from Uncle Fred's manoeuvres!

As is so often the case with the wildly eccentric Uncle Fred, he assumes a false identity at the Bostock household in order to pull off his masterly plans. Pongo is under his own name as the intended to Hermione Bostock, or is he Edwin Smith of 11, Nasturtium Road, East Dulwich, a criminal of the worst type? Has Constable Potter discovered a nest of criminals?

When Otis Painter, a struggling publisher, inadvertently incorporated some art studies of a most indelicate nature into Sir Aylmer Bostock's reminiscences, the choleric Sir Aylmer threatened a ruinous lawsuit. To prevent this disaster overtaking her brother, Sally Painter besought the aid of her benign and perennially youthful uncle, Frederick, fifth Earl of Ickenham. Uncle Fred recognized this as a situation calling for immediate action, brilliant strategy and audacity of the more brazen order. Fortunately he possessed these qualities in abundance, and the masterly plan he evolved, despite the dark suspicion of Constable Potter, the timidity of Pongo Twistleton and the intervention of Major Brabazon Plank, was brought triumphantly to fruition.

Classic lines:
Page 22. Lord Ickenham/Uncle Fred talking to Pongo about his less-than-ideal [in Fred's opinion] choice of wife-to-be, Hermione Bostock: 'The advice I give to every young man starting out to seek a life partner is to find a girl whom he can tickle. Can you see yourself tickling Hermione Bostock? She would draw herself to her full height and say "Sir!" The ideal wife for you, of course, would have been Sally Painter.'

Page 57. Sally Painter talking to Uncle Fred about her brother Otis Painter's publishing slip-up with Sir Aylmer Bostock's memoirs: 'Yes. In a negligent moment he slipped in some plates which should have appeared in a book on Modern Art which he was doing. Sir Aylmer didn't like any of them much, but the one he disliked particularly was the nude female with 'Myself in the Early Twenties' under it...And now he's bringing an action for enormous damages. If it comes off it will smash Otis's poor little publishing firm.'

Looking for a 1st Edition?
Try this 1948 Hutchinson listing:


1966, Penguin, pbk


2005, Audible Download, narrator Jonathan Cecil
Wodehouse, P. G. 'Mike at Wrykyn', published in 1990 by Penguin Books, 189pp, paperback, ISBN 0140124543. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1990, Penguin
Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon

Wodehouse, P.G. 'Mike at Wrykyn', published in 1990 in Great Britain by Penguin Books, 189pp, 1st printing with front cover illustration covering bottom two-thirds of the book. ISBN 0140124543. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1990, Penguin 1st paperback printing. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon

Wodehouse, P. G. 'Mike at Wrykin', published in 1968 by Armada Paperbacks (May Fair Books), 160pp. Condition: vintage, wholly intact & readable, with some mild tanning to internal pages (browning effect from ageing). Price: £8.55, not including p&p (which is Amazon's stanard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
Armada, 1968, pbk
In stock, click to buy for £8.55, not including p&p

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  • Mike at Wrykyn (includes Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith) [top]
    First published in 1909 in Great Britain by A. & C. Black as 'Mike'
    First published in two parts in 1953 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, as 'Mike at Wrykyn' and 'Mike and Psmith'
    Published in December 1953 in Great Britain by Hutchinson in hardback with dustjacket, 189pp
    Published in 1968 in Great Britain by Armada (May Fair Books), in paperback, 160pp. Original UK retail price: 2/6 (2 shillings and sixpence)
    Mike at Wrykyn published in Penguin Books in Great Britain in 1990 in paperback, 189pp, ISBN 0140124543. Original UK retail price: £5.99; Aust. $11.95; Can. $12.99; U.S.A $9.95
    Cover illustration by Tony McSweeney
    Note - the Penguin Books 1990 1st printing shows the illustration all the way down the bottom two-thirds of the front cover without a white border round it (see front covers in the left-hand column. Which other printings carry the same layout as the first printing is not yet known.
    Published on September 30, 2011 by Everyman's Library in Germany in hardback with dustjacket, 208pp, ISBN 1841591777

    Published on April 12, 2012 by Overlook Press in hardback, 208pp, ISBN 1590207564
    Kindle Edition of 'Mike' published on August 11, 2015 by OTB eBook publishing, 489pp

Characters (main & semi-important):
Mike Jackson (14 year's old, in Wain's House at Wrykyn, follows in his older brother Joe's shoes in looks. In batting style, he matches Joe's style to the last detail. Joe plays in first class cricket)
Mr. Jackson (Mike's father)
Mrs. Jackson (Mike's mother)
Marjory Jackson (aged 14)
Ella Jackson
Gladys Maud Evangeline Jackson (aged 3)
Phyllis Jackson
Bob Jackson (aged 18, in Donaldson's House at Wrykyn, a sound "bat", but troubled fielder, finds his feet "in the deep")
Joe Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Frank Jackson

(Bob is still at Wrykyn; Joe, Reggie and Frank are the 'grown-up Jacksons' who play in expert cricket. Mike follows in their footsteps in his cricket expertise)
Saunders - cricket coach to the Jacksons. Spends much time training Mike prior to his going to Wrykyn
Firby-Smith, a.k.a "Gazeka", head of Mike's House, Wain's. Mike gets off to a bad start with Firby-Smith by chucking his bag out of the window on the way to Wrykyn, thinking he had left the train and accidentally his bag on it. Later on, in a moment of anger, he calls him a "grinning ape", which sets off a chain of unfortunate events. Mike also defies Firby-Smith's orders for an early start for fielding practice, which Billy Burgess views rather dimly.
James Wyatt. Mike's room mate at Wrykyn and the chief comedy element in the book, although not laugh out loud comedy. Wyatt's stepfather (Mr. Wain) is also the Housemaster of Wain's. Wyatt gets Mike his first chance at cricket at Wrykyn by speaking to Burgess on his behalf. Wyatt is leaving at the end of term and consequently is having fun breaking a few rules before he does, the "Great Picnic", school-wide revolt, being a notable example!
Billy Burgess, captain of the Wrykyn cricket team and the school's fast bowler
Trevor and Clowes (Donaldson's House)
Police Constable Alfred Butt, ends up in the pond from trying to break up a "fight" between Wrykynian youths and pupils from the school (led by Wyatt)
Neville-Smith, a key ally in the "Great Picnic". Neville-Smith's bust-up (big party at home in honour of his getting into the First Eleven in cricket lands Wyatt in hot water with his stepfather, or rather Housemaster
Uncle John, Mike's "Uncle John", 'a wanderer on the face of the Earth', comes to visit Mike and uncovers Mike's noble plot to fake injury in order to help his brother Bob
Mr. Appleby, the housemaster who has his house next to Mr. Wain's. Mr. Appleby notices Wyatt escaping out of school grounds one night
Maclaine. The Ripton cricket captain
De Freece. Star of the Ripton bowling attack on Wrykyn
Macpherson - employs Wyatt on looking after the sheep in Argentina after Wyatt left Wrykyn. Mr. Jackson owns the land and sheep that Macpherson manages

Storyline: Even for a young cricketing genius like Mike Jackson, life at public school is not always a bowl of cherries. When Mike's older brother Bob becomes his chief adversary in securing a place in the school team, a conflict of loyalties becomes inevitable.
This is more of a cricket novel than a comedy and it's well written and interesting, although the pace is somewhat slow. The depiction of English public school life is well done and lives up to expectation, with strict schoolmasters, rules and discipline, but the inevitable bucking of the rules by particular pupils, such as Mike Jackson and Wyatt in particular.

Since Wyatt is the most humourous character in the book, you wonder why Wodehouse writes him out of the story towards the end. Is Psmith in the next book a replacement? It's easy to imagine that this is the case, although Psmith is a much different character to Wyatt. Psmith is Mike's age, he starts Sedleigh at the same time and can provide the companionship and double-act that Wyatt as an older pupil at Wrykyn could not. He's also extroverted and a little bit too "full-on" as a personality at times and very much in the forefront of the storyline, shaping the story and the humour. Wyatt was more incidental to the story at Wrykyn, with Mike being the focus (alongside brother Bob and the cricket detail) and was shaped by it rather than shaping it.

All in all it's a good book and for cricket fans, very worthwhile reading.

Have you tried...?
If you like sports novels, why not try Stephen King's 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' which combines the suspense of a 9-year-old girl getting lost in the woods with her love of a sports hero Tom Gordon, a Red Sox pitcher. His signed baseball cap becomes her talisman in her fight for survival. Worth reading for the sports writing alone

1st Edition, 1953, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1976, Barrie & Jenkins hbk reprint


1990, Penguin, pbk


2011, Everyman's Library, hbk


Kindle Edition of 'Mike'
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Mike and Psmith', published by Penguin Books in 1990, pbk, 192pp, 0140124470. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon!
1990, Penguin Books
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  • Mike and Psmith [top]
    First published in 1909 in Great Britain by A. & C. Black as 'Mike'
    First published in two parts in 1953 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, as 'Mike at Wrykyn' and 'Mike and Psmith'
    Published in 1990 in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback, 192pp, ISBN 0140124470

    Published on September 16, 2009 in Great Britain by SMK Books, in paperback, 152pp, ISBN 1604597844
    Published on May 19, 2012 in Great Britain by Tebbo in paperback, 98pp, ISBN 1486147429

    Published on September 28, 2012 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 224pp, ISBN 1841591831
    Audio Download published on March 1. 2013 in Great Britain by Audible, 5 hours 42 minutes listing time, narrated by Graham Seed
    Kindle Edition published on December 7, 2014 by Otbebookpublishing, 164pp
    Published on December 8, 2014 by Createspace in paperback, 156pp, ISBN 1486147429

Contents: It was a preference for cricked over schoolwork that caused Mike to be removed from Wrykyn and Psmith (the P is silent-compare the Z in Zbysco) from Eton. United in their reluctance to attend their new school, Sedleigh, good-natured Mike and the debonair Psmith become firm friends, resolving to make the best of the injustice and devote their energies exclusively to ragging. Sedleigh insists, above all, that its boys be keen, but it is sorely unprepared for boys of such foresight and resources as Mike and Psmith. The school, as Psmith would say, confuses the unusual with the impossible, and is thus taken very much by suprise by the duo in their element...

Highlights: Look out for the part where the rival housemaster Downing is looking for the shoe splattered with red paint in Mike and Psmith's house (Mr Outwood's house). Psmith is in his element hiding the shoe and making Downing look very foolish. Downing's anger and Psmith's overtly innocent attitude make the scene very humorous.

The interplay between Mike and Psmith, combined with Downing's hardened attitude towards the duo provides much of the entertainment and thrust of this story. Highly recommended book-very gentle humour. Also, if you like cricket, or cricket writing, you're bound to find this book to your taste, where cricket is at the very heart of the story. Will Mike play for Sedleigh or not? Read it and enjoy!

1st Edition, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1990, Penguin, pbk
Wodehouse, P.G. 'Service with a Smile', published in the 1990s in Great Britain by Penguin Books, 9th printing, 176pp, ISBN 01400252324. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
9th undated printing (1990s?), Penguin, pbk
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Wodehouse, P.G. 'Service with A Smile' published in 1981 by Penguin Books, 176pp, ISBN 0140025324. Sorry, out of stock, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1981, Penguin
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  • Service with a Smile [top]
    First published in 1961 in the US by Simon and Schuster in hardcover
    First published in 1962 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in hardcover
    First published in 1966 by Penguin Books in paperback (Penguin 1st Edition)
    Reprinted 1971 in Penguin Books
    Reprinted 1975 in Penguin Books
    Reprinted 1981 in Penguin Books, paperback, 176pp, ISBN 0140025324, cover illustration by Ionicus. Original UK retail price: £1.25; Australia $3.95; Canada $2.95
    Reprinted for the 9th time in the 1990s in Great Britain by Penguin Books, in paperback, 175pp. ISBN same as 1981. Cover illustration for the 9th printing (shown left) is by Chris Riddell. Original UK retail price for this title: UK-£4.99; Canada-$6.99
    Audiobook Download published on August 23, 2005 by Audible, 6 hours 36 minutes of listening time, narrated by Nigel Lambert
    Published on August 7, 2008 in Great Britain by Arrow, in paperback, 240pp, ISBN 0099513994

    Kindle Edition published on May 27, 2009 in Great Britain in paperback, 193pp
    Published on March 26, 2010 in Germany by Everyman's Library in hardback with dustjacket, 224pp, ISBN 1841591661
    Published on August 5, 2010 by Overlook Press in hardback with dustjacket, ISBN 1590203461

    Published in July 2013 by W. W. Norton, in paperback, 190pp, ISBN 0393345963
    Audio CD / MP3 published on June 9, 2015 by Brilliance Audio, narrated by Phil Gigante and Nick Archer

Characters:
Reginald "Pongo" Twistleton- had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime
Frederick Altamount Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, "Uncle Fred"-had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime, and Uncle Dynamite
Uncle Alaric ("Mad Duke of Dunstable")
Archie, nephew of Uncle Alaric
Bill Bailey, friend of Pongo's and betrothed to Myra Schoonmaker
Clarence (9th Earl of Emsworth)-"Lord Emsworth" of Blandings Castle
Lavender Briggs, Lord Emsworth's secretary
George, Lord Emsworth's grandson and keen amateur photographer...
Lady Constance Keeble-Clarence's sister-of Blandings Castle
Lord George Bosham, nephew to Lady Constance Keeble
James Schoonmaker, American friend to Lady Constance Keeble and schoolfriend of Uncle Fred
Myra Schoonmaker, daughter of James, and "ward" of Constance
Beach, Lady Constance's butler
Voules, the Blandings chauffeur
Empress of Blandings
The pigman "Wellbeloved", full name George Cyril Wellbeloved

Storyline: Service with a Smile is a funny book, but average output for Wodehouse. It tends to employ a lot of the comic mechanisms and devices of Uncle Fred in the Springtime, that is that the Mad Duke of Dunstable tries once again to separate the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize pig, away from him, and Uncle Fred comes to stay at Blandings (under sufferance), to smooth the path of love and help protect Lord Emsworth's pig.

The love relationship that Fred must apply his sweetness and light to is that between curate-to-be Bill Bailey and Myra Schoonmaker, but he also applies himself to the unspoken love between Connie and James.

Connie doesn't think Bill Bailey is good enough to marry Myra and forbids their relationship, so Myra is at Blandings and fairly depressed. Uncle Fred comes to Blandings with Bill Bailey (Fred convinces Bill to come to Blandings under an assumed identity...) after a failed attempt for Myra and Bill to marry secretly at a registry office with Pongo in attendance as witness. (unfortunately they go to different registry offices!)

It's worth reading mostly for the interplay between George (Lord Emsworth's grandson) and the Duke of Dunstable. George is one of those irritating, but pleasant grandsons who are into everything and talk to adults as if they are their best buddies. So George often addresses the Duke of Dunstable with expressions like "'I dig you, Chief'" and "'Use your loaf, big boy'", which is very amusing.

Watch out also for the running battles between Lord Emsworth and the Church Lads brigade camping out in the grounds. The Church Lads have been making their presence felt-knocking Lord Emsworth's hat off with a bread roll, teasing the Empress with potatoes on a stick and fooling Emsworth into diving into the lake to save what turned out to be a floating log!
On Uncle Fred's encouragement, the Church Lads' tent ropes get cut at night... but who cut the ropes? And who has got photographic proof?

Not the best Wodehouse, but still gleaming with gems

1st US Edition, 1961, Simon & Schuster, hbk


1st UK Edition, 1962, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1966, Penguin, pbk


1975, Penguin, pbk

Wodehouse, P.G. 'Ice in the Bedroom', published by Herbert Jenkins in 1961, hardcover. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon
1961, Herbert Jenkins
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Wodehouse, P.G. Ice in the Bedroom. Sorry, sold out-click image to access prebuilt Amazon search for this title!
Macmillan, 1968, pbk
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  • Ice in the Bedroom [top]
    First published in 1961 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins, hbk, 224pp, with dustjacket.
    Original 1961 price: 13/6 net
    Published on August 1, 1968 in Great Britain by Macmillan in paperback 192pp
    Published on May 1, 1983 in Great Britain by Coronet (Hodder & Stoughton), in paperback, 224pp
    Published on July 11, 1996 in Great Britain by Vintage in paperback, 224pp, ISBN 0099101912
    Published on March 25, 2011 in Germany by Everyman's Library, in hardback with dustjacket, ISBN 1841591734

    Published on August 4, 2011 in Great Britain by Overlook Press in hardback with dustjacket, 244pp, ISBN 159020512X

Storyline: Freddie Widgeon is in the chips-or expects to be very shortly. After months of slaving in a solicitor's office, he can now count the days to when he will be able to strike off the shackles of Messrs Shoesmith, Shoesmith, Shoesmith and Shoesmith forever. The author of Freddie's gratifying swing of fortune is the American Thomas G. Molloy. With philanthropic benificence he recently let Freddie have some Silver River oil stock for £1000. The deal took every penny Freddie could raise, but the certainty of being able to sell his holding within a month for a cool £10,000 made an instant appeal to his quick intelligence. Indeed, it was a point that Mr. Molloy was most careful to stress when, with fatherly concern, he explained the mysteries of high finance to this young man to whose face he had taken so firm a fancy.

Thus it is a gay and confident Widgeon that we meet in the opening pages of this classic Wodehouse comedy. And though poor Freddie has less and less occasion to feel gay and confident as the story advance, the story romps along from one sparkling situation to the next. [adapted from description on the dj flap]

1st Edition, Herbert Jenkins, 1961, hbk


1968, Pan Macmillan, pbk


2011, Everyman's Library, hbk
Wodehouse, P. G. 'The World of Jeeves', published in 1972 in Great Britain by BCA (Book Club Associates) in hardback, 564pp, no ISBN. Condition: fair, or acceptable. The dustjacket is tatty at the edges with rips on both the top and bottom edges, but the internal book and pages are clean and readable. The book is a special edition published to mark the 90th birthday of the author. Price: £22.00, not including post and packing, which is Amazon UK's standard charge (£2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1972, BCA (Book Club Associates), hbk

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AbeBooks.co.uk
  • The World of Jeeves [top]
    First published in 1967 in Great Britain by Herbert Jenkins in hardback with dustjacket, 564pp, ISBN 025716054x
    Reprinted in 1972 in Great Britain by BCA (Book Club Associates) by arrangements with Barrie & Jenkins in hardback with dustjacket, 564pp, no ISBN

About this book/synopsis: This complete collection of the Jeeves stories is republished (in 1972) to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of the author (Pelham Grenville Wodehouse of course!). Probably no two characters in fiction are as much loved as Jeeves and Bertie Wooster and this edition is published simultaneously with the most recent of their adventures in the novel Much Obliged. The first edition of the The World of Jeeves was described by the Sunday Times as 'a celestial omnibus'. His publishers (Herbert Jenkins) will not dispute that.

Contents:
1. Jeeves takes charge
2. Jeeves in the Springtime
3. Scoring off Jeeves
4. Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch
5. Aunt Agatha Takes the Count
6. The Artistic Career of Corky
7. Jeeves and the Chump Cyril
8. Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest
9. Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg
10. The Aunt and the Sluggard
11. Comrade Bingo
12. The Great Sermon Handicap
13. The Purity of the Turf
14. The Metropolitan Touch
15. The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace
16. Bingo and the Little Woman
17. The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy
18. Without the Option
19. Fixing it for Freddie
20. Clustering Round Young Bingo
21. Jeeves and the Impending Doom
22. The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy
23. Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit
24. Jeeves and the Song of Songs
25. Episode of the Dog McIntosh
26. The Spot of Art
27. Jeeves and the Kid Clementina
28. The Love that Purifies
29. Jeeves and the Old School Chum
30. Indian Summer of an Uncle
31. The Ordeal of Young Tuppy
32. Bertie Changes His Mind
33. Jeeves Makes an Omelette
34. Jeeves and the Greasy Bird

1st Edition, 1967, Herbert Jenkins, hbk


1972, Book Club Associates reprint, hbk
Usborne, Richard (ed.) 'Vintage Wodehouse', published by Penguin Books in 1979, 405pp, ISBN 0140048472. Condition: good, with some fading & tanning to cover; and some tanning to internal pages. Price: £0.01, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1979, Penguin, pbk
In stock, click to buy for £0.01, not including p&p (£2.75 for UK buyers)

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  • Vintage Wodehouse [top]
    Edited by Richard Usborne
    First published in 1977 in Great Britain by Barrie & Jenkins in hardback with dustjacket, 287pp, ISBN 0214203506
    Reprinted in 1979 in Great Britain by Penguin in paperback, 405pp, ISBN 0140048472
    Cover illustration by Ionicus
    Original UK retail price [not known-price scratched out]. Australia: $4.95; Canada $3.95
    On the back of the book, there is a key to who all the characters are on the front of the book

About this book/synopsis: Full-bodied short stories, light tastes from the novels, the merest thimbleful of this, that and the other, each perfect in itself, combine in the rich flavour of this Wodehouse vintage. Nuances of Lord Emsworth and the Empress, a soupcon of Uncle Fred and Pongo Twistleton, a whole bouquet of aunts and a magnum of fizzy girls, laced with the Oldest Member and Mr Mulliner, and of course Bertie Wooster and the inimitable Jeeves...

Chapters:
Boxing Final - the first chapter of the first book Wodehouse published called The Pothunters, 1902 . Wodehouse had boxed at Dulwich
Mike Meets Psmith - from Mike and Psmith
The Clicking of Cuthbert
Boyhood Memories - from Bring On The Girls (1954)
Dark Deeds at Blandings Castle - from Something Fresh (1915)
Dedications - gives some interesting facts and discussion about who Wodehouse dedicated his many books to and why
Ukridge's Accident Syndicate - Ukridge (1924)
Grand Hotel (Barribault's in Mayfair)- from Full Moon (1947)
Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit - from Very Good, Jeeves (1930)
Franglais - from The Luck of the Bodkins (1935)
Anselm Gets His Chance - from Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)
Militant Poet - from Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)
Gussie Presents the Prizes - from Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)
Debut of Young Barrister - from Money in The Bank (1946)
Rodney Has A Relapse - from Nothing Serious (1950)
The Dreadful Duke - from A Pelican at Blandings (1969)
Uncle Fred Flits By - from Young Men in Spats (1936)
Lottie Blossom of Hollywood - from The Luck of the Bodkins (1935)
Some Thoughts on Humorists - from Over Seventy (1957)
Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend - from Blandings Castle (1935)
Bertie's Saviour - from Jeeves in the Offing (1960)
Honeysuckle Cottage - from Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927)
The Case Against Sir Gregory - from Summer Lightning (1929)
The Machinations of Stiffy Byng - from The Code of the Woosters (1938)
Uncle and Nephew - from Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)
The Amazing Hat Mystery - from Young Men in Spats (1936)
Myra Meets an Old Friend - from Service with a Smile (1962)
Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey! - from Blandings Castle (1935)
A Top Hat Goes Flying - from Cocktail Time (1958)
Tried in the Furnace - from Young Men in Spats (1936)
Gally and Sue - from Summer Lightning (1929)
Two Good Dinners at Blandings Castle - from A Pelican at Blandings (1969)
Valley Fields the Blest - from Ice in the Bedroom (1961)
Romance at Droitgate Spa - from Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)
Introducing Percy Pilbeam - from Summer Lightning (1929)
Bramley is so Bracing - from Nothing Serious (1950)
Young Villain - from The Little Nugget (1913)
The Plot So Far - from 'Sleepy Time' in Plum Pie
The Talks to America on the German Radio - these are extracts from the 5 talks made at 4am London time to America in June 1941 on short wave. It was at the suggestion of a man in the German Foreign Office that he do this, having been made a prisoner of war when the Germans invaded France, and released under American pressure.
Wodehouse thought these broadcasts would be released by the American networks who broadcast from Berlin, but in fact he was broadcasting on German radio, albeit short wave. The subject of the talks was a funny slant on an Englishman as a prisoner of war in Germany, but regardless of the subject, these talks caused a story of fury back in England and damaged Wodehouse's reputation

1st Edition, 1977, Barrie & Jenkins, hbk


1979, Penguin, pbk


1995, Vintage, pbk
P. G. Wodehouse Books on Ebay Right Now! [top]