PG Wodehouse: the course of love
“I wish I had a quid for every girl Freddie Widgeon has loved and lost,” sighed an Egg wistfully. “If I had, I shouldn’t be touching you for a fiver.” Continue reading PG Wodehouse: the course of love
Tag: Uncle Fred in the Springtime
P.G. Wodehouse recommends: A Reading List for World Book Day
‘The two twin souls gazed into each other’s eyes. There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.’
P.G. Wodehouse
(Strychnine In The Soup) Continue reading P.G. Wodehouse recommends: A Reading List for World Book Day
Wodehouse quotes for every occasion: Aunt and Uncle Day
“That was Pongo Twistleton. He’s all broken up about his Uncle Fred.” “Dead?” “No such luck. Coming up to London again tomorrow. Pongo had a wire this morning.” Uncle Fred Flits By (Young Men in Spats) 26 July is Aunt … Continue reading Wodehouse quotes for every occasion: Aunt and Uncle Day
On this day 1960: P.G. Wodehouse didn’t turn 80.
P.G Wodehouse was born on 15 October 1881, in Guildford, England. It’s a fact you’re probably aware of already, as the social media machine churns out OTD (On This Day) tributes in an attempt to generate content to the masses. This doesn’t bother me per se. I like social media, I like history, and there are worse things we could be tweeting about. But today’s small flurry of activity marking the anniversary of P.G. Wodehouse’s birth has drawn my attention to some unfortunate inaccuracies and misconceptions about the man, his life and his work. Poor old Plum had to cope … Continue reading On this day 1960: P.G. Wodehouse didn’t turn 80.
5 books by P.G. Wodehouse for Father’s Day
Unlike the male codfish which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons. … Continue reading 5 books by P.G. Wodehouse for Father’s Day
P.G. Wodehouse reading list: the Blandings stories
Lord Emsworth breathed heavily. He had not supposed that in these degenerate days a family like this existed. The sister copped Angus McAllister on the shin with stones, the brother bit Constance in the leg . . . It was like listening to some grand saga of the exploits of heroes and demigods. ‘Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend’ (Blandings Castle) This is a guide for readers wanting to discover the joys of P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings series. It follows previous guides: A Wodehouse Reading Guide (with suggestions for new readers); and A reading list for the Jeeves and Wooster stories. … Continue reading P.G. Wodehouse reading list: the Blandings stories
A Visit to the Wodehouse family archives
On a beautiful autumn day, I left London’s Victoria Station for the glorious Sussex countryside to visit the home of Sir Edward Cazalet, P.G. Wodehouse’s step-grandson. I had met Edward and his wife Camilla, Lady Cazalet, in London during the summer, and they generously invited me to visit their home to view the family’s archive of Wodehouse materials. The train journey was a pleasant, uneventful affair, which did not seem, to me, to be in quite the proper Wodehouse spirit. I ought to have been playing ‘Persian Monarchs’ with a genial stranger, or thumbing through a volume of poems by … Continue reading A Visit to the Wodehouse family archives
The breadth of Plum
Some years ago, in my colourful and varied past, I was engaged in the study of teaching. Though not one of nature’s keenest mathematicians, I did surprisingly well in that subject, attaining a distinction for a particularly fruity essay, which I began with the following quotation. Nature, stretching Horace Davenport out, had forgotten to stretch him sideways, and one could have pictured Euclid, had they met, nudging a friend and saying: ‘Don’t look now, but this chap coming along illustrates exactly what I was telling you about a straight line having length without breadth. Uncle Fred in the Springtime A … Continue reading The breadth of Plum
The four seasons of Wodehouse
It is commonly understood that, far from representing a bygone age, P.G. Wodehouse created an idealised England that never really existed. Yet I remain determined to find fragments of Wodehouse’s world in real life, and last October I immigrated to … Continue reading The four seasons of Wodehouse
Plumtopia 