Dilip Simeon's blog

Wodehouse’s comic gift was built on his brilliant capacity for repressing unpleasantness. P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters - By Sophie Ratcliffe (editor) The situation in Germany had come up for discussion in the bar parlour of the Angler’s Rest, and it was generally agreed that Hitler was standing at the crossroads and would soon be compelled to do something definite. His present policy, said a Whisky and Splash, was mere shilly-shallying. “He’ll have to let it grow or shave it off,” said the Whisky and Splash. “He can’t go on sitting on the fence like this. Either a man has a moustache, or he has not. There can be no middle course.” 'A certain critic—for such men, I regret to say, do exist—made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained “all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.” He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charg...

Countless r eaders of Wodehouse have testified to the way his novels have their own "stimulating effect" on morale, providing not just comic, but almost medicinal effects: the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm , after his defeat in the first world war, consoled himself by reading Wodehouse to his "mystified" staff; the late Queen Mother allegedly read "The Master" on a nightly basis, to set aside the "strains of the day"; more recently, news reports tell of the imprisoned Burmese comedian  Zargana finding comfort in Wodehouse during solitary confinement.  "Books are my best friends", he confided. "I liked the  PG Wodehouse  best.  Joy in the Morning  – Jeeves, Wooster and the fearsome Aunt Agatha. It's difficult to understand, but I've read it three times at least. And I used it as a pillow too."  Wodehouse was born in 1881, and his early years were, in many ways, highly conventional. His father, Ernest, was "as normal as ...

It's a deuce of a situation really. Does one spend time introducing the cast of characters and laying out the background or just plunge straight into writing a tribute? The problem lies in the fact that the first lot who are well acquainted with Bertie, Jeeves, and the gang at Blandings are liable to yell "Old hat! Get on with it!", while the second lot has no idea what to make of it all and is left asking questions like who is Jeeves and what is a Blandings. I suppose there is no choice really but to explain who is who, while telling the first lot to drink a cup of refreshing tea or potter around the garden till I finish. So to get down to the res, this month marks the 100th anniversary of two of English comic writer P.G. Wodehouse's most-beloved creations. The m. b. c.'s in question are good-natured Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and the ultimate gentleman's personal gentleman, Jeeves, who made their first appearance in the short story, 'Extricating Yo...

If we’re talking about culture that makes people happy, we have to start with the works of P. G. Wodehouse. There are two reasons why. One reason is that making people happy was Wodehouse’s overriding ambition. The other reason is that he was better at it than any other writer in history. Some authors may want to expose the world’s injustices, or elevate us with their psychological insights. Wodehouse, in his words, preferred to spread “sweetness and light”. Just look at those titles: Nothing Serious, Laughing Gas, Joy in the Morning. With every sparkling joke, every well-meaning and innocent character, every farcical tussle with angry swans and pet Pekingese, every utopian description of a stroll around the grounds of a pal’s stately home or a flutter on the choir boys’ hundred yards handicap at a summer village fete, he wanted to whisk us far away from our worries. Writing about being a humourist in his autobiography Over Seventy, Wodehouse quoted two peo...

P.G. Wodehouse, creator of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, was the most English novelist imaginable. His comic world was old-fashioned well before he died 45 years ago - crammed with disapproving aunts in hats, eccentric aristocrats and wealthy young men about town getting into scrapes. But he has countless fans around the world - not least in India, a country Wodehouse never set foot in..   In fact Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881 - 1975) became an Indian favourite even as quite a young writer - though he never went there and he barely mentions India in 71 of his novels or in his many short stories. Yet he was read there avidly and his most popular books still sell in English-language bookshops…. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55043717 More posts on PGW

“What ho!" I said. "What ho!" said Motty. "What ho! What ho!" "What ho! What ho! What ho!" After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.” 1. “‘There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself “Do trousers matter?”’ ‘The mood will pass, sir.’” 2. “Into the face of the young man there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.” 3. “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” 4. “I’m not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare who says that it’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.” 5. “The glimpses I had caught of his face from the corner of the eyes had told me that he was grim and resolute, his supply of the milk of human kindness plainly short by sever...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hotdoorknobs/13-pg-wodehouse-quotes-guaranteed-to-make-your-d-5vb 1 “‘There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself “Do trousers matter?”’ ‘The mood will pass, sir.’” 2. “Into the face of the young man there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.” 3. “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” 4. “I’m not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare who says that it’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.” 5. “The glimpses I had caught of his face from the corner of the eyes had told me that he was grim and resolute, his supply of the milk of human kindness plainly short by several gallons.” 6. Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal sou...