Wodehousekeeping

Wodehousekeeping

By iandishesArtsBooks
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Wodehousekeeping episodes

  • The Inimitable Jeeves (Part Two) with Tania Agnihotri

    Part two of the "The Inimitable Jeeves" bonanza. This covers the remaining eight chapters, or six stories: "Comrade Bingo", "The Great Sermon Handicap", "The Purity of the Turf", "The Metropolitan Touch", "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace" and "Bingo and the Little Woman". It also contains our attempt to rank all the stories in the book.

    There will be plot spoilers, so take heed.

    Next month: Leave it to Psmith with Ujjwal Deb.

    You can telegraph me at [email protected].

    Tip me with considerable lavishness at ko-fi

    Find me at Speakers' Corner, AKA Bluesky and Facebook

    Reference works consulted

    N. T. Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

    Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Barry Day, The Complete Lyrics of P. G. Wodehouse

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website (specific page of annotations for this book, mostly by Mark Hodson)

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works mentioned

    Ukridge

    Psmith in the City

    "The Rough Stuff"

    "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina"

    "Bertie Changes His Mind"

    Right Ho, Jeeves

    "The Good Angel"

    A Damsel in Distress

    Something Fresh

    "Sundered Hearts"

    Over Seventy

    The Berlin wartime broadcasts

    Also mentioned

    The Empire Music Hall

    David Lloyd George

    Charlotte Corday

    Jean-Paul Marat

    Lyons' Tea House

    Claud Cockburn

    Thelma Cazalet-Keir (ed.), Homage to Wodehouse

    Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

    Arthur Marshall

    The Edinburgh Castle

    Recommended playlist

    "The Red Flag"

    Noel Coward, "Imagine the Duchess's Feelings" and "The Stately Homes of England"

    Pet shop boys, "Opportunities"

    Bourvil, "C'était bien (le petit bal perdu)"

    The Ink Spots, "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall"

    Ambrose and his Orchestra, "Limehouse Blues" and "B'wanga"

    Ian Carmichael, "What Would I Do Without You, Jeeves" and "Bertie's Lucky Day"

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 40 min
  • The Inimitable Jeeves (Part One) with Tania Agnihotri

    Ian is rejoined by Tania Agnihotri to make a vain attempt to do justice to one of Wodehouse's greatest masterpieces, The Inimitable Jeeves (simply Jeeves in the USA) from 1923. Like Indiscretions of Archie it's a collection of short stories disguised as a novel. This is a two part episode. The first part covers the first ten chapters, or the first five stories: "Jeeves in the Springtime", "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count", "Scoring Off Jeeves", "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" and "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril".

    There will be plot spoilers.

    Next month: Leave it to Psmith with Ujjwal Deb

    You can e-mail me at [email protected].

    ko-fi

    Bluesky and Facebook

    Reference works consulted

    N. T. Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

    Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Barry Day, The Complete Lyrics of P. G. Wodehouse

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website (specific page of annotations for this book, mostly by Mark Hodson)

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works mentioned

    Something Fresh

    My Man Jeeves

    Thank You Jeeves

    The Code of the Woosters

    Right Ho, Jeeves

    Indiscretions of Archie

    The Clicking of Cuthbert

    Ukridge

    The Swoop

    Jill the Reckless

    The Golden Moth (musical, with Fred Thompson and Ivor Novello)

    "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend"

    "Extricating Young Gussie"

    The Adventures of Sally

    "Jeeves and the Dog McIntosh"

    Bring On the Girls (with Guy Bolton)

    Oh My Dear (musical, with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern)

    Also mentioned

    Miguel de Cervantes, The Siege of Numantia and Don Quixote

    World of Wooster, TV series

    Jeeves and Wooster, TV series

    Alexander Pope

    Nicolai Machiavelli

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    George Gordon, Lord Byron

    ABC tea houses

    "The Soul's Awakening", painting by James Sant

    Ruby M. Ayres

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the "Sherlock Holmes" stories

    Helen Wodehouse

    Buck's Club

    Fred Thompson

    Gelert

    Dr. Henry McBrian

    Father Ted, TV series

    Lord Roberts

    Harrods

    Harvey Nichols

    The Bullingdon Club

    Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

    Ian Carmichael

    Dennis Price

    Derek Nimmo

    Just A Minute, radio series

    Timothy Carlton

    Benedict Cumberbatch

    Tom and Jerry

    The Lamb's Club

    Guy Bolton

    Abe Erlanger

    The Shuman Brothers

    Gilbert and Sullivan, Ruddigore

    Recommended playlist

    "Blow the Man Down" (Trad.)

    Ewan MacColl, "The Manchester Rambler"

    Greenbank and Jones, "Private Tommy Atkins"

    Wodehouse and Kern, "We're Crooks"

    Francis Lai, "La Marseillaise"

    André Popp, "La valse à mille temps"

    Beach Boys, "That's Not Me"

    The Cure, "The Love Cats"

    Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes"

    Wodehouse and Kern, "Ask Dad"

    Ian Carmichael, "What Would I Do Without You, Jeeves?"

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 49 min
  • The Adventures of Sally with Sarah Humphrey

    Ian is joined by his old friend Sarah Humphrey to talk about The Adventures of Sally AKA Mostly Sally from 1922. A sort of sister novel to Jill the Reckless, again based on Wodehouse's experience in the world of Broadway musical comedies. The novel reflects its time with talk of financial speculation, prohibition, Spanish flu and boxing. Most notably perhaps, the independent spirit and good sense of not just the heroine but other female characters arguably reflects a spirit of feminism.  

    There will be plot spoilers. 

    Next month: The Inimitable Jeeves with Tania Agnihotri

    You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

    Remunerate me at ko-fi (thanks awfully). 

    You can get the stuff if they know you at our Bluesky and Facebook

    Reference works consulted

    N. T. Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Barry Day, The Complete Lyrics of P. G. Wodehouse

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works mentioned

    The Cabaret Girl (musical, with George Grossmith and Jerome Kern)

    Jill the Reckless

    Bring on the Girls (with Guy Bolton)

    "At Geisenheimer's"

    Piccadilly Jim

    The Luck of the Bodkins

    Also mentioned 

    Jeeves and Wooster (TV show)

    Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

    Jerome Kern

    Guy Bolton

    George Grossmith Jr

    George Grossmith Sr

    Gilbert and Sullivan

    G & W Grossmith, The Diary of a Nobody

    Charles Dickens, Little Dorritt

    Martha Finley, The Elsie books

    Lee, Sam and Jacob Shubert

    Abraham Erlanger

    Henry James, Portrait of a Lady

    Sally (Bolton/Kern musical)

    Marcus Aurelius

    Song snippets

    Noel Coward, "The Stately Homes of England" and "Dear Little Café"

    Wodehouse/Jerome Kern, "Napoleon"

    Grey/Kern, "Sally"

    David Devant and his Spirit Wife, "Ginger" (and "Sally")

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 49 min
  • Best of Episodes 1-10 (Spoiler-Free Special!)

    A special episode consisting of excerpts from the first ten episodes of Wodehousekeeping, introduced by host Ian Cockburn with a little background on how the show came about.

    This is designed for the listener who has skipped these episodes because the haven't read (or actively dislike) the books that the episodes discuss. The selections therefore have been chosen to steer clear of plot spoilers, and plot recapping generally. The emphasis is on my guests' history with Wodehouse and their general thoughts on him, plus other stuff that I think is intrinsically interesting or amusing, outside the wider context of the full podcasts.

    The ten episodes

    The Pothunters

    A Prefect’s Uncle

    Tales of St Austin’s

    The Gold Bat

    William Tell Told Again

    The Head of Kay’s

    Love Among the Chickens

    The White Feather

    Not George Washington

    The Globe By The Way Book

    and the guests featured

    Julia Ediger

    Alexander Rennie

    Josh Cockburn

    Thom Robinson

    Ujjwal Deb

    Mora

    Gwen Sheldon

    You can e-mail me at [email protected].

    Help bolster the show's tottering finances at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping. Jolly decent of you.

    Drop in at the digital clubhouse at Bluesky or Facebook

    Main reference works consulted

    N T Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Robert McCrum: Wodehouse: A Life

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works mentioned

    Very Good Jeeves

    Summer Moonshine

    Psmith in the City

    The Inimitable Jeeves

    "Ukridge Starts a Bank Account"

    A Few Quick Ones

    "Jeeves Takes Charge"

    "Goodbye to All Cats"

    "The Amazing Hat Mystery"

    Also mentioned

    Arthur Ransome

    Enid Blyton

    Winker Watson in the Dandy

    Jeeves and Wooster TV show

    Herbert Westbrook

    Baldwin King-Hall

    Ella King-Hall

    Sebastian Faulks, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells

    Frasier

    Anthony Buckeridge, The Jennings books

    Edward Gorey

    Richard Ayoade

    St Stephen's College, Delhi

    Shashi Tharoor

    Lewis Carroll

    SNL

    Jonathan Swift

    Alexander Pope

    Winston Churchill

    Peter Motteaux's English translation of Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote

    René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, the Asterix books

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 27 min
  • The Girl on the Boat with Ansley Ashe

    Ian is joined by author Ansley Ashe to discuss The Girl on the Boat (1922), AKA Three Men and A Maid. 


    Ansley Ashe is making a transition from wrestling/soccer mom, soccer coach, and library trustee to full fledged novelist. She has loved mysteries since she was a little girl, so when it came time to choose a genre, mystery was a natural fit. She loves everything between Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Haller aka the Lincoln Lawyer. She is reading her way through Agatha Christie and Anne Perry and read her first Wodehouse just for this podcast, now she will have to add him to her TBR list. Last year she published a series of holiday themed novelettes based on a young, female detective Charlotte "Charlie" Snow, with several novels still to come in the series. You can keep up with her on her Substack


    There will be plot spoilers. 


    Next month: The Adventures of Sally with Sarah Humphrey.


    You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

    Help keep the Good Ship Wodehousekeeping afloat ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping. 

    Our Bluesky and Facebook


    Reference works consulted

    N. T. Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    https://www.madameulalie.org

    Wikipedia


    Other Wodehouse works mentioned

    Frozen Assets

    Jill the Reckless (The Little Warrior)

    Something Fresh

    Heavy Weather

    "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"

    "Church Round the Corner"

    A Damsel in Distress

    "Sir Agravaine"

    "The Mixer"

    A Gentleman of Leisure

    "Strychnine in the Soup"


    Also mentioned 

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes stories

    Agatha Christie

    Anne Perry 

    Michael Connolly, the Mickey Haller/Lincoln Lawyer books 

    Jeeves and Wooster

    Hugh Laurie

    Stephen Fry, Moab is My Washpot

    Saturday Night Live

    The Girl on the Boat film, archived here

    Norman Wisdom

    Millicent Martin

    Bernard Cribbins

    Sheila Hancock

    Richard Briers

    Athene Seyler

    Philip Lock

    Wilde

    Annie Besant

    F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

    The Lusitania

    Alice "Billie" Dovey

    Thomas Otway, The Orphan

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    Constance Markievicz - first female member of UK parliament

    Nancy Astor

    Frank Tinney

    The Black and White Minstrel Show

    Bert Williams

    Southwick Priory

    Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

    William Shakespeare, Othello

    Scooby Doo

    Edgar Allen Poe

    Sir Walter Scott, "Young Lochinvar"

    Mary Mestmacott, Giant's Bread

    Mary Roberts Rheinhart

    Dorothy L Sayers

    G K Chesterton

    Georgette Heyer

    Raymond Chandler

    "Carolyn Keene", the Nancy Drew series

    Amelia Earhart

    Marilyn Monroe


    Song snippets

    Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, "(She's Gonna) Respect Me"

    Flanders and Swann, "Sea Fever"

    The Seven Inches, "Stop Pestering Me" (lyrics/vocals: me)

    Tindersticks, "Pinky in the Daylight"


    Special thanks to Radio Guest List.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 54 min
  • The Clicking of Cuthbert with Elin Woodger Murphy

    Ian is joined by extra special honoured guest Elin Woodger Murphy, A legend of the Wodehouse Society (and the Wodehouse Society UK), former editor/"oldest member" of Plum Lines and Wooster Sauce and one of the organisers of this year's Wodehouse Society Convention in Garden City, NY.

    The book we are discussing this month is The Clicking of Cuthbert (1922), Wodehouse's first collection of golf stories, AKA Golf Without Tears. Elin also talks of her childhood spent in Port Chester and Long Island where they lived very near the Wodehouses, and of her history in Wodehouse fan circles. We also enthuse over the work of Elin's late husband, Norman Murphy.

    There will be plot spoilers and stymies. 

    Next month: The Girl on the Boat with Ansley Ashe.

    Special thanks to Maria Jette.

    The Wodehouse Society website, with details of the 2026 convention in Garden City, NY

    My band The Seven Inches are playing a show this month! Tickets here

    You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

    Help bolster the show's tottering finances at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping. Jolly decent of you.

    Drop in at the digital clubhouse at Bluesky or Facebook

    Reference works consulted

    N T Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works alluded to

    Carry On Jeeves

    The Man Upstairs

    The Man With Two Left Feet

    Leave it to Psmith

    Uncle Fred in the Springtime

    "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend"

    The Heart of a Goof

    Love Among the Chickens

    "Archibald's Benefit"

    "Parted Ways"

    "the Eighteenth Hole"

    "The Man Who Disliked Cats"

    "By Advice of Counsel"

    Jill the Reckless

    "Bongo in the Congo" (lyric)

    The Mating Season

    "Tom, Dick and Harry"

    "The Idle King"

    William Tell Told Again

    "Sir Agravaine"

    Also mentioned 

    Maria Jette

    Wodehouse Society (US)

    Marilyn MacGregor

    Ed Ratcliffe

    Plum Lines

    Bill Blood

    Norman Murphy

    The Wodehouse Society (UK)

    Wooster Sauce

    Edward Cazalet

    The Wodehouse Collection at Vanderbilt University

    The Shaw Festival Theatre Niagara

    Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense

    Norman Murphy: - A Guide to P G Wodehouse's New York City and Long Island

    - A Wodehouse Handbook

    - In Search of Blandings

    - A Wodehouse Miscellany

    Weston Park

    Sudeley Castle

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Bobby Jones

    Abe Mitchell

    Harry Vardon

    Terry Mordue

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    Rudyard Kipling

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

    Marcus Aurelius

    E. M. Hull, The Sheik

    Hal Cazalet

    Song snippets

    Pet shop boys, "You know where you went wrong"

    Goffin and King, "He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)

    Cole Porter, "Find Me A Primitive Man"

    Gallagher and Shean, "Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean"


    There is more in this pastime than the casual observer would suppose.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 30 min
  • Indiscretions of Archie with Peter Falconer

    Ian is rejoined by composer, writer, musician, voice artist, and parafictionalist Peter Falconer to look at Indiscretions of Archie (1921), a series of short stories adapted into the form of a novel. Topics arising include the First World War, Prohibition, 'the Irish question' and Labour Relations.

    There will be plot spoilers. 

    Next month: The Clicking of Cuthbert, or Golf Without Tears.

    You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

    Replenish the show's doubloons at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping. One-off or recurring payments gratefully received.

    Hob nob and so forth at Bluesky or Facebook

    Reference works consulted

    Robert McCrum: Wodehouse: A Life

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Norman Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Lee Davis: Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia

    Other Wodehouse works alluded to

    The Swoop

    A Gentleman of Leisure

    Piccadilly Jim

    The Inimitable Jeeves

    The Code of the Woosters

    The Prince and Betty

    "Extricating Young Gussie"

    "Leave it to Jeeves" AKA "The Artistic Career of Corky"

    A Damsel in Distress

    "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril"

    Bring on the Girls (with Guy Bolton)

    "We're Crooks" (song)

    Uneasy Money

    "Napoleon" (song)

    "In Alcala"

    "Doing Clarence a Bit of Good"

    "Jeeves Makes an Omelette"

    Also mentioned 

    Baldwin King-Hall

    Herbert Westbrook

    Ella King-Hall

    Biblia Wodehousiana

    T. D. Skidmore (US illustrator)

    Fred Astaire

    A. Wallis Mills (UK illustrator)

    Ian Hay

    C H Bovill

    James Bond

    "Fatty" Arbuckle

    Abe Erlanger

    Abgail's Party

    Song snippets

    The Archies, "Sugar Sugar"

    Sananda Maitreya, "If You Let Me Stay"

    The Beach Boys, "It's Trying to Say"

    The Divine Comedy, "Don't Mention the War"

    Shonen Knife, "Fruits and Vegetables"

    Little Richard, "Lucille"

    Kenny Carter, "Showdown"

    Sterling Trio "It's A Long Way Back To Mother's Knee" 

    Cole Porter, "You're the Top"

    Noel Coward, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"

    The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, "Annie's Cousin Fannie"

    Flanders and Swann, "Strike"

    Magnetic Fields, "Goin' Back to the Country"

    Cocteau Twins, "Tishbite"

    Georges Brassens, "La chanson pour l'Auvergnat"

    Sting, "An Englishman in New York"

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 49 min
  • Jill the Reckless with Alexander Rennie

    Ian is joined for a fifth time by Alexander Rennie of the now concluded Forgotten Towns podcast and blog. They discuss Jill the Reckless, AKA The Little Warrior, from 1920. A standalone Anglo-American novel centred around the New York stage, it includes the first mention of the Drones Club. Ian and Alex both consider this one of the stronger Wodehouse books so far covered in the podcast.  

    There will be plot spoilers. 


    Next month: Indiscretions of Archie.


    You can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

    Help finance the show, Otis Pilkington style, at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping. One-off or recurring payments gratefully received.

    Monitor my feeble attempts at self-promotion at Bluesky or Facebook


    Reference works consulted

    Robert McCrum: Wodehouse: A Life

    Sophie Ratcliffe, ed: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Norman Murphy: A Wodehouse Handbook

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff: Who's Who in Wodehouse, third edition

    Lee Davis: Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Frances Donaldson, ed: Yours, Plum

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia


    Other Wodehouse works alluded to

    Something Fresh

    The Prince and Betty

    Uneasy Money

    The Adventures of Sally

    Leave it to Psmith

    Bill the Conqueror

    Big Money

    "The Man Upstairs"

    Indiscretions of Archie

    The Inimitable Jeeves

    A Damsel in Distress

    "The Mixer"

    The Luck of the Bodkins

    The Rose of China

    "Napoleon" in Have A Heart

    The Small Bachelor

    "Bill" in Show Boat

    Anything Goes

    Psmith Journalist

    Company For Henry


    Also mentioned

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    John Grant

    Willy Mason

    Walt Mason

    Flanders and Swann, "The Safety Curtain", "Strike" and "In the D'Oyly Cart"

    Richard D'Oyly Carte

    Book of Daniel, The Bible

    Beastie Boys, "Shadrach"

    David Devant and His Spirit Wife, "Pimlico"

    The Bowes-Lyons family

    Dickens, David Copperfield and Bleak House

    Beachcomber (J.B. Morton), the Captain Foulenough stories

    Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

    Ian Sproat

    Julian Mitchell

    The Ziegfeld Follies

    Abraham Lincoln Erlanger

    Napoleon Bonaparte

    Cockburn's Port

    Rennie Heartburn and Indigestion Relief

    Diet Coke

    Etta James, "I Just Want to Make Love To You"

    Automat

    Omar Khayaam

    Alexander Woollcott

    William J Halley, "Pullman Porters on Parade"

    Robert S. Bader, Four of the Three Musketeers

    Apocrypals podcast

    Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals 

    The Orange Tree, Richmond

    Patricia Hodge


    Thank you for reading the notes! Typing them sometimes feels a little futile, but you make it all worthwhile.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2 hr 52 min
  • A Damsel in Distress with Josh Cockburn

    Ian is joined again by his brother Josh to talk about P. G. Wodehouse's A Damsel in Distress, the 1919 standalone novel that has a lot of similiarites to a Blandings Novel. It also features the return of Keggs (The Man Upstairs, The Coming of Bill) and the themes of medieval-style chivalry, class snobbery and musical theatre. We also talk about the 1937 film version, starring Fred Astaire, featuring songs by George and Ira Gershwin, and a screenplay co-written by Wodehouse.


    There will be spoilers.


    You can e-mail me at [email protected], anonymously or otherwise

    Furnish me with the needful at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping

    Join in the feast of reason and flow of soul on Bluesky or Facebook


    Reference works consulted

    Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

    Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

    Richard Usborne, Wodehouse At Work to the End

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse

    Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

    Barry Day, The Complete Lyrics of P. G. Wodehouse

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

    Wikipedia and IMDb


    Other works by Wodehouse mentioned:

    A Gentleman of Leisure

    Something Fresh

    A Damsel in Distress (play and film adaptations)

    The Girl Behind the Gun (show)

    "The Good Angel"

    "Love Me, Love My Dog"

    Something Fishy

    Summer Lightning

    Bachelors Anonymous

    "Sir Agravaine"

    The Prince and Betty

    "Avenged!"

    "Extricating Young Gussie"

    Piccadilly Jim

    Uneasy Money

    Spring Fever

    The Code of the Woosters

    Jill the Reckless

    Miss 1917 (show)

    Oh Kay (show)

    Rosalie (show)


    Also mentioned: 

    Ian Hay

    Basil Foster

    W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman, 1066 and All That

    George Gershwin

    Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (Bollywood adaptation)

    Maud and Ivan Caryll

    Euros Childs, "Thrips"

    Jerome Kern

    Taskmaster

    Reece Shearsmith

    Mary Deane

    The Regal Theatre

    Alice Dovey

    Anton Chekhov

    Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

    Enid Blyton

    Richard Harris Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends

    Lewis Carroll, "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    Machiavelli

    David and Jonathan (Book of Samuel)

    Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

    Riot Women

    Guy Bolton

    Ira Gershwin

    Pandro S Berman

    George Stevens

    Allan Scott

    Fred Astaire

    Ginger Rogers

    Joan Fontaine

    George Burns

    Gracie Allen

    Reginald Gardiner

    Ray Noble

    It's A Wonderful Life

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 46 min
  • The Coming of Bill with Gwen Sheldon

    Gwen Sheldon has stayed on the line to help me look at The Coming of Bill (1919, but really 1914), Also known as Their Mutual Child or The White Hope, it's a rare serious novel (though featuring some choice quips) with a plot supplied for Wodehouse by a helpful magazine editor called Bob Davis.

    There will be spoilers. 

    Content note: discussion of eugenics, nazis, racism, death, and general bad times. (Surely some mistake? -Ed)


    You can e-mail me at [email protected]

    forward me your spare Colombian gold at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping

    or follow the show on Bluesky or Facebook

    Please tell your friends about the show: our publicity budget was lost in some unwise stocks and shares shenanegans.


    Reference works consulted

    Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

    Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

    Richard Usborne, Wodehouse At Work to the End

    Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse

    Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website


    Other works by Wodehouse mentioned:

    My Man Jeeves

    The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

    Bring on the Girls (with Guy Bolton)

    "A Prisoner of War"

    Piccadilly Jim

    Jill the Reckless

    "By Advice of Counsel"

    "The Good Angel" 

    "Love Me, Love My Dog" 

    A Damsel in Distress

    The Little Nugget

    The Globe 'By the Way' Book

    The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories


    Also mentioned: 

    Bob Davis

    Jack Johnson

    James Jeffries

    Wodehouse's adopted daughter Leonora Cazalet

    Rembrandt van Rijn

    The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

    L M Montgomery, The Blue Castle

    Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events


    Short musical snippets included or parodied:

    Noël Coward, "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans"

    Dire Straits, "Lady Writer"

    Helen Morgan, "Bill" (Wodehouse/Kern)

    Elvis Presley, "Old Shep"

    Nobuyoshi Koshibe and Katsuo Ohno, Theme from "Mysterious Cities of Gold"

    The Gothic Archies, "Scream and Run Away"

    "Napoleon" (Wodehouse/Kern)

    Kimya Dawson, "It's Been Raining"

    Kenny Carter, "Showdown"

    The Seven Inches (my band) "Our Gang of Friends" and "Bad Genes"


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 33 min

About Wodehousekeeping

From the publisher's feed

Ian Cockburn and guests discuss the work of P. G. Wodehouse, one book at a time.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more…