In 2016, I had the great privilege of visiting the home of P.G. Wodehouse’s grandson to see his extensive family collection of Wodehouse treasures, including drafts, completed manuscripts, letters, and Wodehouse’s own reading library. As you might imagine, I was … Continue reading P.G. Wodehouse exhibition at The British Library
So you’d like to give P.G. Wodehouse a try, but don’t know where to start. Or perhaps you’ve read the Jeeves stories and want to explore Wodehouse’s wonderful wider world.
You’ve come to the right place. Continue reading P.G. Wodehouse reading guide
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
‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendor.’ Stephen Fry Most Wodehouse readers will be familiar with this quotation, printed on thousands of new editions, and quoted ad nauseam by reviewers and fans alike. Unfortunately it is sometimes bandied about to support the argument that Wodehouse and his work ought not be discussed — that Mr Fry has spoken and we, mere readers, should restrict ourselves to spouting quotations (or better, dignified silence). As someone who blogs about Wodehouse, I naturally take a different view. Nor am I convinced that this is what Stephen … Continue reading Souffles and spades
I wrote this a few years ago at my personal blog, which I am now decommissioning. I thought I’d save this piece to share here with fellow Wodehouse lovers. This week, I enjoyed a piece called ‘Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old guesses what classic novels are all about. It inspired me to conduct a similar exercise of my own. I showed the covers of 7 classic novels – one from each category of ‘The Guardian’s list of 1000 novels everyone must read) – to five people, of different ages, who had not read these books. I asked … Continue reading Cover Story: 5 people share their ideas about Classic Novels they’ve never read
Plum! Comfort food for readers by P G Bhaskar Bhaskar is the author of Jack Patel’s Dubai Dreams (Penguin (I)) and Jack is back in Corporate Carnival (Harper Collins (I))’ P G Wodehouse is known to have said that he started turning out the stuff from the age of five. Before that, he has confessed to not remembering what he did. ‘Just loafing, I suppose’ is how he described it. Too bad. Else, we would have had another five years of delightful reading material. Over a hundred years after he first started writing, what is it that still has millions … Continue reading Plum! by the Inimitable P G Bhaskar
What Ho! I have started this blog as part of a lifelong quest for Utopia. Unfortunately, the quest hasn’t been going so well, ever since I took that wrong turn at Bass Strait. Tasmania is pretty in places, but I don’t fit in here. I feel much as Alice anticipated she might upon reaching the end of the rabbit hole. How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland It has been suggested to me by some presumably well-intentioned people that my … Continue reading In Search of Plumtopia
Plumtopia 