Wodehousekeeping

Ian is re-rejoined by Gwen Sheldon to look at THE FIRST JEEVES BOOK (if you think it counts): My Man Jeeves, a UK only collection of eight short stories, half of which are among the earliest Jeeves stories, all set in New York. The other half are Reggie Pepper stories, Reggie being an early prototype of Bertie Wooster. We also look at the three other Reggie Pepper stories that were published in magazines but were left out of the book collections during The Master's lifetime. 

There will be spoilers. 

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Stories covered in this episode:

"Leave it to Jeeves" 

"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest" 

"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg" 

"Absent Treatment"

"Helping Freddie"

"Rallying Round Old George"

"Doing Clarence a Bit of Good"

"The Aunt and the Sluggard" 

"Disentangling Old Percy"

"Concealed Art"

"The Test Case"

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

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:

The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

Carry On Jeeves

The Inimitable Jeeves

"Jeeves Takes Charge"

"Extricating Young Gussie"

"Bertie Changes His Mind"

The Adventures of Sally

"Rough-Hew them How We Will"

Love Among the Chickens

Something Fresh

A Gentleman of Leisure

"The Fatal Kink in Algernon"

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

"Fixing it for Freddie

"Unpleasantness at Kozy Kot"

A Few Quick Ones (US version)

"Deep Waters"

Brother Alfred (play/film)

Not George Washington

The Globe By the Way Book

Thank You Jeeves

Piccadilly Jim

"George and Alfred"

Plum Pie

"Jeeves Makes an Omelette"

A Few Quick Ones

"The Wigmore Venus"

"Archibald's Benefit"

Also alluded to: 

Harry Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap

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

Bud Fisher, Mutt and Jeff

R Outcault, Buster Brown

James Sant, The Soul's Awakening

Agatha Christie

Herbert Westbrook

N A Knox

F Opper, Happy Hooligan

Laurence Grossmith

George Grossmith Jr.

George Grossmith Sr. and Weedon Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody

Leslie Havergal Bradshaw

Cupid's Inspiration, "Yesterday Has Gone"

Billy Sunday

Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

Fred Stone

Making Good with Mother

Cutting Out Venus

World of Wooster

Jeeves and Wooster

Helen Wodehouse

George Herriman, The Dingbat Family and Krazy Kat

The Beatles, "Baby's in Black"

Boost for Birdsburg!

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A solo episode this time, as I (Ian Cockburn) turn to 1917's The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories, P. G. Wodehouse's second collection of short stories for adults, which includes "Extricating Young Gussie", the story that first introduces the legendary characters Bertie Wooster (here apparently called Bertie Mannering-Phipps), Aunt Agatha and - in a cameo role - Jeeves. There are plot spoilers. Content note: see below next to individual stories.

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Stories covered, with start times:

"Bill the Bloodhound" 6m 

"Extricating Young Gussie" 17m  

"Wilton's Holiday" 33m 46s

"The Mixer: He Meets a Shy Gentleman" 42m 

"The Mixer: He Moves in Society" 49m 

"Crowned Heads" 54m

"At Geisenheimer's" 1h 1m

"The Making of Mac's" 1h 11m (CN: suicide)

"One Touch of Nature" 1h 22m

"Black for Luck" 1h 27m

"The Romance of an Ugly Policeman" 1h 35m

"A Sea of Troubles" 1h 43m (CN: suicide)

"The Man with Two Left Feet" 1h 46m

Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

Piccadilly Jim

Something Fresh

The Reggie Pepper stories

"Three From Dunsterville"

"Deep Waters", 

"Fixing it for Freddie"

The golf stories

The Girl on the Boat

Bustanoby's

"In Alkala"

"By Advice of Counsel"

"Something to Worry About"

"The Man Upstairs"

"The Man Who Disliked Cats"

My Man Jeeves

The Prince and Betty

Uneasy Money

Joy in the Morning

Nuts and Wine (revue)

A Man of Means

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

George Grossmith, Jr.

Harry Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap

Percy Jeeves

Leslie Havergal Bradshaw

The Beatles, "Get Back"

Magnetic Fields, "Goin' Back to the Country"

O. Henry

The Golden Butterfly (film adaptation of "The Making of Mac's")

M. F. Carey, "Learning McFadden to Waltz"

Leonora Cazalet

Denis Mackail "At Mr Besley's"

Do the Right Thing podcast

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Ian is joined by Nigel Townshend to enthuse over 1917's Piccadilly Jim, a breakthrough novel for Wodehouse. Nigel voices his displeasure at the 2004 film version. There are plot spoilers.

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Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

Leave it to Psmith

The Little Nugget

A Damsel in Distress (film screenplay)

A Gentleman of Leisure

"Concealed Art"

The Riviera Girl (musical, with Guy Bolton and Emmerich Kalman)

Bring On the Girls (memoir, with Guy Bolton)

Love Among the Chickens

"Rallying Round Old George"

Anything Goes (musical)

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

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

Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

The three film adaptations of the book

Blandings (TV series)

New York Giants

The Regent Grill

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Hugh Laurie

George Herriman, "The Dingbat Family" & "Krazy Kat" comic strips

Delmonico's

Bachelors' Club

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Drop the Dead Monkey! Ian is joined by writer and artist Tom Bailey to look at 1916's Uneasy Money, Wodehouse's second serial for the Saturday Evening Post, which had a personal significance for Plum and Ethel Wodehouse, as it is set in Long Island, setting of their courtship and early married life; and like them, the hero and heroine are married at the "Church 'Round the Corner" on Madison Square, also the inspiration for the song of the same name by Wodehouse and Jerome Kern. Tom and Ian debate the merits or otherwise of Wodehouse's more romantic novels, and of romance stories in general.

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Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

"Bill" (song)

"At Geisenheimer's"

"Extricating Young Gussie"

Something Fresh

Performing Flea

A Gentleman of Leisure

Psmith Journalist

The Swoop

"Church Round the Corner" (song) in Sally

Indiscretions of Archie

Bachelors Anonymous

Ring For Jeeves (the Jeeves novel without Bertie)

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

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

Lee Davis, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

Michael Buerk

Nicolae Ceaușescu

Bob Peck

Jeeves and Wooster

David Nobbs

The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin

Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, Bleak House, Pickwick Papers

Oscar Wilde

George Eliot

Olga Tokarczuk The Empusium, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of The Dead

Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

Laurence Sterne, Tristam Shandy

Tobias Smollett

Jonathan Coe

Honoré de Balzac

Emile Zola

Vanity Fair (US)

Mary Poppins

F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Edna May

The Belle of New York (Musical)

Lady Constance MacKenzie

Sarah Bernhardt

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

John Mortimer, The Rumpole stories

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Superman III

Hergé,the Tintin stories

Ionicus (Joshua Charles Armitage)

Rashomon

Bringing Up Baby

The Church of the Transfiguration, New York

Alice Fraser, A Passion For Passion

Georgette Heyer

When Harry Met Sally

Nora Ephron, Heartburn

Sherlock Jr

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Host Ian Cockburn (of the Shropshire Cockburns) is rejoined by storyteller and writer Matthew Bellwood to discuss Psmith Journalist, the third Psmith novel, and one of the first of Wodehouse's novels to be set in America. The novel first appeared in The Captain from 1909-10 but didn't appear in book form till 1915, by which point it had already been repurposed in 1912 for the US version of The Prince and Betty

A tale of yellow journalism in gangland New York. 

This podcast contains spoilers, and some discussion of racism.

You can e-mail me at [email protected]

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Wodehousekeeping cannot be muzzled

Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

Mike and Psmith

The Luck of the Bodkins

Psmith in the City

The Prince and Betty

A Gentleman of Leisure

The Kid Brady stories

The Little Nugget

The Luck Stone

"The Episode of the Live Weekly"

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

Columbo: Strange Bedfellows

Twin Peaks

The Godfather

Boardwalk Empire

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Colin From Accounts

Carol Vorderman

Ted Kessler, Paper Cuts

Al Capone

Monk Eastman

Groucho Marx

Doctor Who

Sandie Shaw, "Reviewing the Situation"

John Mitchell Jr.

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm

Cole Porter

Noël Coward

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Ian is joined by Tania Agnihotri to look at Something Fresh, AKA Something New, the first Blandings novel, published 1915. The book introduces the immortal Lord Emsworth, Freddie Threepwood, Beach the butler and the Efficient Baxter, though much of the focus is on this month's imposters at the castle. Content note: bad American accents.

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Other works by Wodehouse mentioned:

The Mr Mulliner Stories

"The Story of Webster"

"The Truth About George"

Mike and Psmith (part two of Mike)

The Ukridge stories

Love Among the Chickens

The Luck Stone

"The Matrimonial Sweepstakes"

"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"

"A Man of Means: The Episode of the Hired Past"

Psmith in the City

"The Crime Wave At Blandings"

The Reggie Pepper stories

"Ruth in Exile"

Right Ho, Jeeves

"Pearls Means Tears"

"Strychnine in the Soup"

Leave it to Psmith

"The Goalkeeper and the Plutocrat"

"A Man of Means: The Episode of the Live Weekly"

"A Pal Like You" from Oh, Boy!

Reference works consulted

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Paul Kent, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

Saki, "Mrs Packletide's Tiger"

George Ade

Herbert W. Westbrook

William Townend

Samuel Johnson ("A man who is tired of London...")

Alfred Harmsworth

Simpson's in the Strand

Philip Peveril Wodehouse

Georgette Heyer

J M Barrie, The Admirable Crichton

Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)

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I am rejoined by Gwen Sheldon to peruse the first collection of Wodehouse short stories for a general audience, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories (1914), a bumper crop of nineteen stories and a favourite of both of us. Because there is so much to discuss, we have split it into two parts. In the second part we look at the remaining eleven stories, including the two stories whose success persuaded Wodehouse to move to America, "Archibald's Benefit" (his first golf short story) and "The Good Angel" (the first Keggs story, and first mention of a Lord Emsworth). Also in this batch we have a rare football-themed story, a Knights of the Round Table parody, and a highly autobiographical love story. We also each list our ten favourite stories. There will be spoilers.

You can e-mail me at [email protected]

make a donation at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping

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Stories covered in this instalment, with start times:

"Archibald's Benefit" / "Reginald's Record Knock" 2m 09s

"The Man, The Maid, and the Miasma" 10m 44s

"The Good Angel" 17m 12s

"Pots o' Money" 30m 08s

"Out of School" 38m 46s

"Three from Dunsterville" 43m 53s

"The Tuppenny Millionaire" 51m 26s

"Ahead of Schedule" 55m 22s

"Sir Agravaine" ih 05m 50s

"The Goal-Keeper and the Plutocrat" 1h 06m 40s

"In Alcala" 1h 16m 16s

Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

Love Among the Chickens

"The Truth about Webster"

A Damsel in Distress

"Mr Punch's Spectral Analyses. IV - An Official Muddle"

"Love Me, Love My Dog"

The Coming of Bill

Over Seventy

Something Fishy

"The Crime Wave at Blandings"

"Creatures of Impulse"

"Jeeves in the Springtime"

William Tell Told Again

"The Idle King"

"At Geisenheimers"

Reference works consulted

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End, notes to Sunset at Blandings 

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Robert Browning

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King

Gene (band)

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet

Flanders and Swann, At The Drop of Another Hat (stage patter)

"Purity" Statue, Times Square, New York City, 1909

Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur

Shrek

James Thurber, The 13 Clocks and The White Deer

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur

J B Priestley, The 31st of June

Ted Lasso

André Messager, Mirette

Alice Dovey

Leslie Bradshaw

William Townend

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I am rejoined by Gwen Sheldon to peruse the first collection of Wodehouse short stories for a general audience, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories (1914), a bumper crop of nineteen stories and a favourite of both of us. Because there is so much to discuss, we have split the episode into two parts. In the first part we look at the background of the book and Wodehouse's life when he wrote them (living cheaply in New York), and discuss the first eight stories. There will be spoilers.

Content note: mention in "Rough-Hew Them How We Will" of attempted suicide and of animal cruelty in "The Man Who Disliked Cats".

You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Make a donation at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping

or follow me on Bluesky or Facebook

Stories covered in this instalment, with start times:

"The Man Upstairs" 12m 33s

"Something to Worry About" 23m 52s

"Deep Waters" 32m 10s

"When Doctors Disagree" 41m 47s

"By Advice of Counsel" 49m 13s

"Rough-Hew Them How We Will" 57m 03s

"The Man Who Disliked Cats" 1h 02m 57s

"The Fatal Kink In Algernon" (later rewrite of the above) 1h 11m 50s

"Ruth in Exile" 1h 17m 40s

Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

Over Seventy

Uneasy Money (preface)

"When Papa Swore in Hindustani"

The Code of the Woosters

Joy in the Morning

A Gentleman of Leisure

"Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" 

The Swoop

The Luck Stone

"Sir Roderick Comes To Lunch"

Right Ho, Jeeves

"The Fatal Kink In Algernon"

"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count" (AKA "Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer")

The Adventures of Sally

Reference works consulted

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End

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

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy; A Wodehouse Handbook

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

The Ainu people of Japan

O. Henry, "The Gift of the Magi"

F. Opper, Alphonse and Gaston (comic strip)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

William Shakespeare, Othello and Hamlet

Lord Roberts

Agatha Christie's character Hercule Poirot

George Herriman, Alexander and Krazy Kat (comic strips)

Michael Tisserand, George Herriman: A Life in Black and White

The Book of Ruth (The Bible)

Herbert Westbrook

The Billiken

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A solo episode. Ian delves into two short story cycles, The Kid Brady stories (1905-7) and A Man Of Means (1914, with C. H. Bovill) which posthumously were collected into a single volume. The Kid Brady stories are boxing tales set in New York, while A Man of Means is a quasi-novella wherein a hapless clerk from Bury St Edmonds inadvertently keeps getting richer and richer. There will be spoilers.

CN: brief discussion of racism

Other Wodehouse works mentioned

Over Seventy

Psmith Journalist

The Prince and Betty

The Gold Bat

The White Feather

The Coming of Bill AKA The White Hope

The Reggie Pepper Stories

The Inimitable Jeeves

The Indiscretions of Archie

Something Fresh

Not George Washington (with H W Westbrook)

Nuts and Wine (Revue) (with C H Bovill)

The Globe By The Way Book (with H W Westbrook)

Big Money

Bachelors Anonymous

Bring on the Girls (with Guy Bolton)

Reference works consulted or mentioned

madameeulalie.org

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Garrison and Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse (third edition)

David Jasen P. G. Wodehouse: Portrait of a Master

Also mentioned

Kid McCoy

Too many other real life boxers to mention

Jack Johnson vs James J Jeffries

Damon Runyan

Randy Newman, Short People (song)

Harold Begbie, The Curious and Diverting Adventures of Sir John Sparrow, Bart. 

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Seymour Hicks, The Gay Gordons (musical comedy)

Phyllis Bedells

C H Bovill, Honi Soit (revue)

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Tobias Smollett, Roderick Random

Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

George Barr McCutcheon, Brewster's Millions 

The Bumpkin Billionaires, comic strip originally in Whoopee comic

Guglielmo Marconi

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email: [email protected]

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Ian Cockburn is joined by his old friend Nigel Townshend to dissect Agatha Christie's favourite Wodehouse novel The Little Nugget (1913). A tale of kipnapping at an English private preparatory school, presumably inspired by Wodehouse's time as a guest at Emsworth House school. There will be spoilers.

Other Wodehouse works mentioned

Piccadilly Jim

Full Moon

Thank You, Jeeves

The Luck Stone

The Eighteen-Carat Kid (variant version of The Little Nugget)

The Indiscretions of Archie

Much Obliged, Jeeves

Psmith Journalist

Also mentioned

The Beano and Dandy comics

The BBC radio Jeeves adaptations with Richard Briers and Michael Hordern

Agatha Christie, Hallowe'en Party

Baldwin King-Hall

Herbert Westbrook

King Cophetua

Harry Hershfield, Desperate Desmond (comic strip)

Napoleon Bonaparte

Reference works consulted

madameeulalie.org

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Garrison and Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse volume 3

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

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Wodehousekeeping Podcast links

Wodehousekeeping on Bluesky

Wodehousekeeping on Facebook

Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi

email: [email protected]

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