Books by P G Wodehouse

Book SynopsisDo Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968) features Mike Bond, the hitherto fortunate owner of Bond's Bank, who finds himself in a spot of trouble so serious that he wants someone to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it. Fortunately for him, Horace Appleby, currently posing as his butler, is on hand to oblige. For Horace is, in fact, not a butler at all but the best sort of American gangster, prudently concealing himself in an English country house while hiding from his rivals. Looking for peace and safety, Horace is to discover before long that the hot-spots of New York are a whole lot more restful than the English countryside. This is the lightest of light comedies, a Wodehousian soufflé from his later years.Trade Review"Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in." -- EVELYN WAUGH"He exhausts superlatives" -- STEPHEN FRY"Pure word music" -- DOUGLAS ADAMS"The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum" * THE INDEPENDENT *"The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare" * EVENING STANDARD *

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Book SynopsisThe thought of being cooped up in Blandings Castle with Clarence, the Earl of Emsworth, the perennially youthful Galahad and with the Earl's younger son, Freddie Threepwood, openly appalled Colonel Wedge. It was, he grimly asserted, like being wrecked on a desert island with the Marx Brothers. But the arrival of Tipton Plimsoll at Blandings Castle considerably brightened the Colonel's horizon. For Tip-ton was a rich young American and rich young Americans were, in the Colonel's opinion, quite the most desirable companions for his daughter, Veronica, the dumbest beauty listed in the pages of Debrett. The stage was set for a great romance, or so the Colonel thought, and so it might have been had the knowledge of Freddie's erstwhile engagement to Veronica been withheld from the jealous Tipton, or if Prudence, the Earl's niece, had not been forcibly parted from her unsuitable lover, Bill Lister. On such incidents do great issues depend. However, Uncle Gaily, who combined the ready resource of a confidence trickster with the zeal of a cheerful crusader, intervened with an ingenious scheme to reunite the young lovers. It was a master-plan. How the plot miscarried at the crucial stage and in doing so caused a social and domestic revolution unparalleled in the history of Blandings Castle, is revealed in this most hilarious of chronicles.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *Nothing will ever dim the brilliance of Wodehouse's world or flatten his ever-sprightly and always entertaining prose -- John Mortimer * The Sunday Times *Pure word music * Douglas Adams *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisIn nine of Wodehouse's ripest stories from the 1920s, the characters are united by their worship of golf. From Rodney Spelvin, the sickeningly good-looking romantic poet who comes to his senses when he discovers the game, to Rollo Podmarsh, who finishes his round even when he thinks himself fatally poisoned, and Chester Meredith who discovers eloquence on the eighteenth green, we meet the full range of humanity in fair weather and foul. P.G. Wodehouse is recognised as the greatest English comic writer of the twentieth century. His characters and settings have entered our language and our mythology. Launched on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, the Everyman Wodehouse will eventually contain all the novels and stories, edited and reset. Each Everyman volume will be the finest edition of the master ever published.Trade ReviewNothing will ever dim the brilliance of Wodehouse's world or flatten his ever-sprightly and always entertaining prose -- John Mortimer * The Sunday Times *What can one say about Wodehouse? He exhausts superlatives. I am not alone in believing he has come closer than any writer of English to approaching Shakespeare's complete mastery and transcendency of language. * Stephen Fry *Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisContaining drafts of stories later rewritten for other collections (including Carry On, Jeeves), My Man Jeeves offers a fascinating insight into the genesis of comic literature's most celebrated double-act. All the stories are set in New York, four of them featuring Jeeves and Wooster themselves; the rest concerning Reggie Pepper, an earlier version of Bertie. Plots involve the usual cast of amiable young clots, choleric millionaires, chorus-girls and vulpine aunts, but towering over them all is the inscrutable figure of Jeeves, manipulating the action from behind the scenes.Early or not, these stories are masterly examples of Wodehouse's art,turning the most ordinary incidents into golden farce.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *A handsome, collectable hardback edition * Lynne Truss, THE TIMES *

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Book SynopsisAlthough the story of Uncle Dynamite concerns Bill Oakshott's struggle to find ways of getting his girl while financing his inheritance at Ashenden Manor, the real hero of the book is Frederick Altamont Cornwallis, fifth Earl of Ickenham. This noble lord describes himself as 'one of the hottest earls that ever donned a coronet' and he was also one of his creator's favourite characters, featuring in three other novels. Lord Ickenham sees it as his mission to bring a little joy into the lives of others, and on this occasion he surpasses himself.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *A handsome, collectable hardback edition * Lynne Truss, THE TIMES *

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Typical. Just when Bertie thinks that God's in his heaven and all's right with the world, things start to go wrong again...There's young Bingo Little, who's in love for the umpteenth time and needs Bertie to put in a good word for him with his uncle; Aunt Agatha, who forces Bertie to get engaged to the formidable Honoria Glossop; and the troublesome twins, Claude and Eustace, whose antics when let loose in London know no bounds.Add to that some friction in the Wooster home over a red cummerbund, purple socks and some snazzy old Etonian spats, and poor Bertie's really in the soup...Only one man can save the day - the inimitable Jeeves.Characters Bertie Wooster - Narrator who went to school with Bingo. Won a prize at his first school for the best collection of wild flowers. Jeeves - Bertie's valet who has an aunt who loves the romantic novels of Rosie M. Banks Bingo Little - Mortimer's nephew who loves Mabel. Tells his uncle that Bertie is really Rosie M. Banks. Mabel - Waitress in a tea shop Mortimer Little - Retired fat businessman who owned Little's Liniment - "It Limbers Up the Legs." He is a gourmet. Jane Watson - Mortimer's cook engaged to Jeeves, but not for long

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Book SynopsisThe action is mostly set at Rudge Hall, home to the obese miser Lester Carmody, and at Healthward Ho, a health farm run by 'Chimp Twist, along with his cohorts 'Soapy' and 'Dolly' Molloy. who were all previously encountered in Sam The Sudden (1925) and would return in Money in the Bank (1946).Hugo Camody, Lester's nephew, and his friend Ronnie Fish, would appear later in Blandings Castle, home of Ronnie's uncle Lord Emsworth, in Summer Lightening (1929) and Heavy Weather (1933)Trade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisNot-so-fresh off the tramp steamer from America, Sam Shotter 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. Not only does Sam discover he's living right bang next door to the girl of his dreams, but he's sitting, rather embarrassingly, on a goldmine. Some rather superior sleuthing will be required.Trade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *

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Book SynopsisLORD BISKERTON, son and heir of the sixth Earl of Hoddesdon, and known to his friends as Biscuit, had red hair, a preliminary scenario for a moustache and a noble determination to escape the disgrace of work. His friend Berry Conway, however, had succumbed to economic pressure and become the secretary to T. Paterson Frisby, a dyspeptic American who had twenty million and loved every cent of it. When Biscuit and Berry pooled ideas for their mutual betterment, and one idea concerned Ann Moon, Frisby's beautiful niece and heiress, they had to lean heavily on Aunt Vera, an old campaigner in the field of love. How Uncle Paterson was caught short and rushed to cover, while Aunt Vera hedged the market with a double play and salted down two money-making engagements for the House of Hoddesdon, is one of the most irresistible tales of the one and only P. G.Trade ReviewThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisWhen Sam Marlowe falls in love with his cousin's sparky ex-fiancée he finds himself up against stiff opposition from her millionaire father, her father's best friend and the best friend's son for whom she is destined, all of them travelling together aboard the RMS Atlantic. Nothing daunted, Sam perseveres in his suit: though he fails at sea he eventually triumphs on land. This Anglo-American musical comedy in prose begins in New York, crosses the Atlantic in leisurely fashion and ends in an English country house where all manner of things go bump in the night.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisA collection of stories featuring familiar Wodehouse characters includes Jeeves and Wooster, Ukridge and his fearsome Aunt Julia, Bingo Little and his wife, romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks, twin Mulliner brothers George (the screenwriter) and Alfred (the conjuror),Galahad Threepwood, dotty Lord Emsworth and his younger son Freddie, the dog-biscuit salesman. In between stories, their creator explores some of the more extraordinary items in the American news of his day.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisSir George was disappointed in his son, he was not a chip off the old block and lacked the aggressive drive required of a business tycoon. So why not marry him off to Felicia she has plenty of spark and could manage any man, all was going well until the arrival from New York of Bill West.Felicia - a sprightly girl calculated to put the stuffing into any man - is about to be married off to the dreary Roderick Pyke when Bill arrives from New York and she suddenly recognizes in him the man for whom she should forsake all others.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisA butler named Keggs who, having overheard the planning of a scheme, later decides to try and make money out of his knowledge.It features Percy Pilbeam, the unscrupulous head of the Argus Detective Agency, who first appeared in Bill the Conqueror (1924) and was in several other Wodehouse books, including a visit to Blandings Castle in Summer Lightning (1929).Trade ReviewThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * The Evening Standard *He exhausts superlatives -- Stephen Fry

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Book SynopsisPsmith helps acting editor Billy Windsor change the image of Cosy Moments magazine and they are stalked by gangsters when their expose of slum tenements angers an unscrupulous landlord.Trade ReviewIn these handsome volumes, with the pages that smell of real paper and those fine covers by Andrzej Klimowski, you find that the sparkle hasn't dimmed. They are a cause for regular celebration. -- James Naughtie * The Times *

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Book SynopsisFurther stories of members of the Drones Club and several adventures related by the Oldest Member of the golf club. Many old friends reappear - Bingo Little and Mrs Bingo, Freddie Widgeon, Ambrose Gussett, Agnes Flack, Horace Bewstridge and many more. Including: The Shadow Passes. Bramley is so Bracing. Up From the Depths. Feet of Clay. Excelsior. Rodney Has a Relapse. Tangled Hearts. Birth of a Salesman. How's That, Umpire? Success Story.Trade ReviewIn these handsome volumes, with the pages that smell of real paper and those fine covers by Andrzej Klimowski, you find that the sparkle hasn't dimmed. They are a cause for regular celebration. -- James Naughtie * The Times *

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Book SynopsisWhen Bill Bannister meets Dr Sally Smith, love blossoms immediately. Unfortunately there is just the small problem of Lottie Higginbotham, former actress, serial bride and human fireball, with whom Bill is already involved.The well-meaning interference of Bill's old friend, Squiffy Tidmouth, once married to Lottie, only complicates matters further, until everything is straightened out in a series of comic encounters at Bill's ancestral home and everyone lives happily ever after.

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Book SynopsisA collection from the master, containing The Fat of the Land (Freddie Widgeon) Scratch Man (The Oldest Member) The Right Approach (Mr Mulliner), Jeeves Makes An Omelette, The Word In Season (Bingo Little), Big Business (Mr Mulliner), Leave It To Algy (Bingo Little), Joy Bells For Walter (Golf story), A Tithe For Charity (Ukridge), Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust (Freddie Widgeon)Trade ReviewThe finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew * Stephen Fry *Sublime comic genius * Ben Elton *

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Book SynopsisLord Emsworth's prized pig, the Empress of Blandings, is at the centre of Wodehouse's hilarious tale of mistaken identity, the triumph of young love, and general mayhem among the twits at Blandings Castle.Trade ReviewWodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever * Douglas Adams *

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Book SynopsisLove is a powerful spur, and Cyril Fotheringay-Phipps (known to his friends as Barmy) invests his modest fortune in a stage production, encouraged by his admiration for the delectable Miss Dinty Moore. And so he demonstrates that affairs of the heart and high finance may be happily combined.

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Book SynopsisIt is an intriguing collection, where most of the stories concern relationships, sports and household pets, and interestingly does not feature any of Wodehouse's regular characters; one however, "Extricating Young Gussie", is remarkable as the first appearance of some of Wodehouse's most well-known and beloved characters, Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster (although here Bertie's surname appears to be Mannering-Phipps, and Jeeves' role is very small), along with Bertie's fearsome Aunt Agatha.Trade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisIt wasn't Archie's fault, really. It's true he went to America and fell in love with Lucille, the daughter of a millionaire hotel proprietor . . . and if he did marry her -- well, what else was there to do? From his point of view, the whole thing was a thoroughly good egg; but Mr. Brewster, his father-in-law, thought differently, Archie had neither money nor occupation, which was distasteful in the eyes of the industrious Mr. Brewster; but the real bar was the fact that he had once adversely criticized one of his hotels. Archie did his best to heal the breach; but, being something of an ass, genus priceless, he found it almost beyond his powers to placate the "man-eating fish" whom Providence had given him as a father-in-law. . . .Trade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *

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Book SynopsisThe `Frozen Assets' of the title belong to Edmund Biffen Christopher and they are the legacy of his Godfather which he will receive if he manages to avoid been arrested, something of a previous habit of Biffen's, until after his thirtieth birthday one week hence. Lord Tilbury, proprietor of the Mammoth publish company, whom we met previously in `Bill the Conqueror', `Summer Lightning' and `Heavy Weather', is keen that Biffen does fall foul of the law as he will then receive the legacy himself. Tilbury has therefore engaged his usual henchman, Percy Pilbeam, to ensure that Biffen is lead astray and that it is brought to the attention of the constabulary. Only Wodehouse can scare up a happy ending where everyone gets exactly what is coming to them.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisWith the Duke of Dunstable trying to steal his pig to sell to Lord Tilbury, mischievous Church Lads camping in his park, his sister Constance bossing him unmercifully, and Lavender Briggs, his secretary, making life miserable, Lord Emsworth has little time to concentrate on the invasion of Blandings Castle by yet another impostor. But Bill Bailey, a.k.a. Cuthbert Meriwether, has inveigled himself into the castle to be with his beloved, Myra Schoonmaker, who is staying there under the eagle eye of Lady Constance, and Lady Constance is determined to thwart him. In the end virtue conquers vice: the lovers are united, Dunstable defeated and Tilbury trounced, but only through the brilliant plotting of Frederick, Earl of Ickenham whose greatest triumph is to marry off Lady Constance to an old admirer, Myra's father. In the end everyone is happy who deserves to be, none more so than Lord Emsworth who at one fell swoop frees himself from the tyranny of a duke, a secretary and a sisterTrade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *He exhausts superlatives * Stephen Fry *

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Book SynopsisWhen someone breaks into the cricket pavilion and steals two silver cups, the whole school is agog. Could it possibly be an inside job? Nothing less than the honour of St Austin's is at stake, not to mention the reputation of Jim Thomson, an excellent athlete with a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.In this charming novel of school life, the first book he published, Wodehouse demonstrates right away a talent for story telling and characterisation, not to mention a sharp ear for the inflections of schoolboy speech, still recognisable after more than a century. But what marks the story out from others of the same sort are the many humorous touches which hint at a master of comedy in the making.Trade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisThe action of the novel takes place at the fictional "Beckford College", a private school for boys; the title alludes to the arrival at the school of a mischievous young boy called Farnie, who turns out to be the uncle of the older "Bishop" Gethryn, a prefect, cricketer and popular figure in the school. His arrival, along with that of another youngster who becomes fag to Gethryn, leads to much excitement and scandal in the school, and the disruption of some important cricket matches.Trade ReviewSublime comic genius * Ben Elton *The finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew * Stephen Fry *Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisBlandings Castle lacks its usual balm for the Earl of Emsworth, as his stern sister Lady Constance Keeble is once more in residence. The Duke of Dunstable is also infesting the place again, along with the standard quota of American millionaires, romantic youths, con artists, imposters and so on. With a painting of reclining nude at the centre of numerous intrigues, Gally's genius is once again required to sort things out.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *The Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *Sublime comic genius * Ben Elton *The finest and funniest writer the past century ever knew * Stephen Fry *Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever * Douglas Adams *

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Book SynopsisWodehouse's well-known gift for satisfying plots and comic surprises is evident on every page, but there are also signs of his debt to earlier writers in the realistic tradition. Set mainly in London or New York, many of the stories concern ordinary people - shopassistants, schoolmasters, secretaries, servants, unsuccessful writers - living the life of rented rooms and cheap cafés Wodehouse knew well from his own experience. Yet there is nothing sad or gloomy about these tales. Far from it: they are brimming with life and energy, beautifully written and invariably delightful. And for Wodehouse addicts there is also a goodly sprinkling of goofy young men about town and their valets to satisfy the strongest appetitesTrade ReviewThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare. * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisThe vintage plot concerns a Gainsborough miniature, a mouldering country house, an overweight solicitor, a fortune-hunter, a butler who isn't a butler, an American corporate lawyer and his kleptomaniac sister; but the heart of the story - in every sense - concerns Jerry West and his determined pursuit of air hostess Jane Hunnicutt, the eponymous Girl in Blue. When Jane unexpectedly becomes a millionairess, Jerry despairs of wooing her, but the sun never goes behind a cloud for long in Wodehouse: Jerry gets his Jane in the end, but only after a series of trials which raise the comic stakes to the author's highest level.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *A handsome, collectable hardback edition -- Lynne Truss * The Times *

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Book SynopsisWhen O'Hara and Moriarty, two boys at Wrykyn School, tar and feather the statue of a pompous local MP, O'Hara mislays at the scene of their crime a tiny gold bat borrowed from Trevor, captain of the school cricket team. The plot revolves around the fate of this bat and attempts to retrieve it, but the real focus of the novel is a vivid portrayal of school life. Though the setting is an English public school in the years before World War 1, so sharp is Wodehouse's ear for the way children talk that everyone will recognise familiar characters and situations, whatever their place of education.Trade ReviewThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *A handsome, collectable hardback edition -- Lynne Truss * The Times *The incomparable and timeless genius - perfect for readers of all ages, shapes and sizes -- Kate Mosse

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Book SynopsisFreddie Widgeon wants the money to buy shares in a coffee plantation in Kenya so that he can marry Sally Foster. Soapy and Dolly Molloy want to get their hands on a cache of stolen jewels hidden in the house of Freddie's neighbour in the suburb of Valley Fields. When their paths cross, the ensuing misunderstandings lead to vintage Wodehouse comedy.Trade ReviewA handsome, collectable hardback edition -- Lynne Truss * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThe Adventures of Sally is a transatlantic comedy set in worlds Wodehouse knew well: American theatres, English country houses, and the theatrical boarding-houses where young men and women dream of finding fame and fortune. Coming into an inheritance, one of these young women, Sally, is able to leave her boarding-house at last, and looks forward to a quiet life in a small apartment. Instead, she finds herself swept up in a series of adventures with her ambitious brother, an accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman she meets on a French beach, and his supercilious cousin who pursue her across the Atlantic. While losing her inheritance backing a play, and then retrieving it, she sheds an unsatisfactory fiancé, falls in love with the accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman, rejects the supercilious cousin, and finds happiness in a kennel on Long Island.

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Book SynopsisMuch married American movie mogul Ivor Llewellyn depends on his friends at Bachelors Anonymous to keep him out of romantic entanglements on his trip to London. First, they arrange for Joe Pickering to be his bodyguard. Then his lawyer, Ephraim Trout, is sent to England to help fend off the actress Vera Dalrymple who is determined to ensnare Llewellyn. All seems to be going well. But when devoted bachelor Trout takes it upon himself to thwart a romance between Pickering and a beautiful journalist, he sets in train a series of events which end in more than one marriage including his own

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Book SynopsisThis is the tale of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, one of Wodehouse's favourite protagonists, and his fraught attempt to establish a business farming chickens on the coast of Dorset. The story is told by Jeremy Garnet through whose bemused eyes we observe the magnificent Ukridge at work while following Garnet's own chequered romance with the daughter of a neighbouring professor.Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisThis charming story of the Jackson cricketing dynasty describes the adventures of Mike Jackson at boarding school as he makes his way up the sporting ladder to the first eleven. The young P. G. Wodehouse evokes the peaceful, prosperous world of middle-class England before the Great War, a place where rich men hire private cricket professionals to coach their sons at home, and little seems to matter at school except the publishing of team lists and the taking of tea. But such is the novelist's skill that he can make excitement from the small-scale dramas of teenage life, and interest even the most unsporting reader in the cricket matches he describes so lovingly. A curiosity for those who know only the Wodehouse of Blandings and Piccadilly, but a delightful one.

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Book SynopsisFollowing the death of Carmen Flores, the lubricious Mexican star, Adela Cork buys her Hollywood house. Hoping to escape from the domineering Adela, her brother-in-law Smedley, who has lived with her since losing his money, searches the house for Carmen's legendary lost diary, in the belief that its scorching revelations about the sex life of her fellow stars will make him millions. He is helped and hindered by a safe-blowing butler, a pompous movie mogul, a posse of unemployed scriptwriters, and the redoubtable Adela herself. Fortunately, Adela's sister, 'Bill' Shannon, not for nothing nicknamed 'the Old Reliable', is on hand to ensure a satisfactory outcome. A light comedy which is also a sharp satire on Hollywood mores.

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Book SynopsisThe stories in this collection reflect Wodehouse’s own happy schooldays at Dulwich College but they also do a good deal more. Although among his earliest attempts at fiction they give fascinating glimpses of a time when motor cars were novelties, schoolmasters wore mortar boards and gowns, and America was a rising power in the world.The best of them display the author’s love of games and knack for neat plotting. In one, a resourceful teenaged heroine helps a truant schoolboy cricketer by marooning his credulous schoolmaster at the top of a church tower until the match is over. Another describes a boy escaping from the scene of his crime by a passing car, only to be caught out by a last-minute revelation. Several Sherlock Holmes parodies read as what they are – high-spirited experiments – but the longer stories delve deeper into character: together, they recreate a vanished world of school shops, fagging, Latin prep and hearty teas.

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Book SynopsisSt Austin's school (as featured in The Pothunters) is the setting for twelve delightful early Wodehouse stories. The familiar ingredients - and some of the same characters - are present: cricket and rugby loom large, school colours are gained, tricks are played, exams avoided, revenge wreaked upon enemies, and the honour of School and House upheld. A nostalgic look at English public-school life at the turn of the twentieth century, made enjoyable today by the young Wodehouse's gentle humour and witty turn of phrase.

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Book SynopsisIt is the general view at Eckleton school that there never was such a house of slackers as Kay's. Fenn, head of house and county cricketer, does his best to impose some discipline but is continually undermined by his house-master, the meddlesome and ineffectual Mr Kay. After the Summer Concert fiasco, Mr Kay resolves to remove Fenn from office and puts his house into special measures, co-opting Kennedy, second prefect of Blackburn's, as reluctant troubleshooter with a brief to turn the place around. But without the backing of Fenn, and the whole house hostile towards him, how can he achieve the impossible ...?Trade ReviewWodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughThe handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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Monty Bodkin has returned to London from Hollywood, leaving Sandy Miller, his secretary there, heartbroken, because Monty loves English hockey international Gertrude Butterwick instead of her. Holding down a job for a year was the condition laid down by Gertrude’s father before Monty and Gertrude could be married, a condition Monty has unexpectedly fulfilled by blackmailing Hollywood movie mogul Ivor Llewellyn. Back in England, he intends to claim his bride, but the path to true love never runs smooth, as Monty is about to find out.

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Book SynopsisIn order to save his reputation and the honour of his house at school after he shames himself by running away from a fight between fellow pupils and toughs from the local town, a studious schoolboy takes up the study of boxing. This charming early novel by P. G. Wodehouse plays a series of witty variations on the standard school story of the period, balancing the minor heroics of the action against a humorously ironic commentary. The simple tale is given sparkle by vivid character drawing and the author’s sharp ear for schoolboy dialogue

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Book SynopsisThree American sisters leave their chicken farm on Long Island for a holiday in Europe. In France they encounter the charming but penniless Marquis de Maufringneuse, his writer son Jeff, and the marquis’s tough American ex-wife. When they all find themselves together at the exclusive resort of St. Rocque - one of the sisters in search of a husband, the marquis in search of a fortune, the writer in search of love - Wodehousian complications ensue.

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Book SynopsisWould-be painter, George Finch, with lots of money and no talent, falls for lovely Molly Waddington who falls for him. Unfortunately, Molly’s snobbish stepmother, Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, New York society queen, has grander ideas for Molly, not least because George comes from Idaho, which is in every sense beyond the pale. Based on a 1917 musical comedy script by Wodehouse and his friend, Guy Bolton, The Small Bachelor tells the story of George’s struggle to win his girl, with the willing help of Hamilton Beamish, author of self-improvement pamphlets, and the unwitting assistance of a poetic policeman, Molly’s henpecked father, and New York’s premier female pickpocket.Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. * Evelyn Waugh *

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Book SynopsisThis volume reprints two of Wodehouse’s earliest books which take the form of story sequences linked by a central character, a technique he used many times thereafter. Delightful in themselves, they are interesting chiefly as windows on a great writer’s early evolution.In The Man of Means, he looks forward to Bertie Wooster and Ukridge, but also back to his Victorian models, in a fantastic tale of the little man struggling with fate. When a humble clerk comes into a fortune, he embarks on a series of misadventures which suggest that wealth is not necessarily an unmixed blessing. Here we see signs of the satirical writer Wodehouse might have become, and the spirit of Chaplin is not far away.Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughHe exhausts superlatives -- Stephen Fry

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Book Synopsis"Deep down in his heart the genuine Englishman has a rugged distaste for seeing his country invaded by a foreign army. People were asking themselves by what right these aliens had overrun British soil. An ever-growing feeling of annoyance had begun to lay hold of the nation.”Clarence Chugwater is not a Boy Scout for nothing. It is summer 1909 and everyone is too interested in the Test Match to notice that England has been invaded by the Germans. And the Russians. And the Chinese. Not to mention a ‘boisterous band of the Young Turks’, a mad Mullah, and a brace of North African pirates. The government has recently abolished the army so there is nothing to be done about it anyway, except give a masterly display of polite indifference. But this would be to reckon without patriotic Clarence, ‘Boy of Destiny’, who alone is prepared to stand up to the foe, and who devises a highly unorthodox plan to restore his country to freedom…The Swoop! Or, How Clarence Saved England reprints the 33 black and white drawings by C. Harrison that accompanied the first edition. It is supplemented by The Military Invasion of America, in which Clarence’s story is humorously transplanted across the Atlantic.Trade ReviewThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisIn this series of letters to William Townend, a fellow-writer and friend since their schooldays at Dulwich College, Wodehouse discusses in some detail his literary outlook, writing methods and constant hunt for new plots. Characteristically modest and lightly humorous in tone, the letters are nevertheless revealing of a dedicated, practical and scrupulous craftsman whose most brilliant inspirations were grounded in decades of unremitting hard work.The letters are introduced and annotated by the editor, who provided Wodehouse with the idea for one of his most famous characters, Ukridge.

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Book SynopsisThis early novel, written in collaboration with a friend, is a fascinating curiosity which suggests that Wodehouse might have become a very different, experimental sort of writer, had he continued to write in the same vein.Using multiple narrators, playing with literary stereotypes and identities, it tells the story of an aspiring young writer, James Orlebar Cloyster, prepared to do almost anything, first for success and then for gratification. By making Cloyster a mild, affable young man of the sort so familiar in his later novels, Wodehouse creates a comic disparity between the character’s lofty professions of virtue and his unscrupulous behaviour. As the story progresses, we realise that he is not unusual: all the main characters are unscrupulous in one way or another, ready to cheat and lie in pursuit of their ends, hence the title of the book.Not George Washington contains many fine scenes, and Cloyster’s narrative displays the calm mastery of story-telling Wodehouse had already made his own. If awkwardly executed, it is cleverly plotted, springing several surprises along the way. Clearly autobiographical in origin, it also invites readers to reflect on the nature of talent, fame, failure and success, villainy and honour - themes which continued to recur in the author’s work for another sixty years.Trade ReviewMr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn Waugh * BBC Broadcast *

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Book SynopsisDespite an enormous solo output, P. G Wodehouse often co-operated with other writers, especially in the early stages of his career, exchanging or sharing plots, advising on problems and even writing books and stage-works together. Bring on the Girls is a characteristically mordant account of his work with Guy Bolton in musical comedy, which occupied much of Wodehouse’s energy from his arrival in America and effectively made his reputation. This is a tactful book - there are no shocking revelations - but an extremely amusing one, with vivid portraits of such stars as Gertrude Lawrence and insights into febrile life behind the scenes.Trade ReviewWodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn WaughHe exhausts superlatives -- Stephen FryThe Everyman edition promises to be a splendid celebration of the divine Plum. * The Independent *The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare * Evening Standard *

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