Wodehousekeeping

Ian is joined by Alexander Rennie once more to look at the UK version of the novel The Prince and Betty (1912). The US version has a very different plot closely based on the earlier novel Psmith, Journalist (serialised 1909-1910, book version 1915). We touch lightly on the US version but the main discussion of it will follow in the episode on Psmith, Journalist.

Alexander's own podcast is Forgotten Towns

Other Wodehouse works mentioned

Psmith, Journalist

The Swoop

"The Good Angel" (AKA "The Matrimonial Sweepstakes")

A Gentleman of Leisure

Psmith in the City

The Prizegiving scene in Right Ho, Jeeves

The Steggles stories in The Inimitable Jeeves

The J. Washburn Stoker character in Thank You, Jeeves

Also mentioned

Mills and Boon

Boris Karloff

Ellaline Terriss

Seymour Hicks

The Monégasque Revolution of 1910

Carry On Films

Stephen Leacock, "Gertrude the Governess"

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Yes Minister

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Kigeli V Ndahindurwa of Rwanda

Reference works consulted

Daniel H. Garrison and Neil Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse (Third Expanded Edition)

Neil Midkiff's notes on the different versions at Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

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

Wodehousekeeping Podcast links

Wodehousekeeping on Bluesky

Wodehousekeeping on Facebook

Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi

email: [email protected]

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Ian looks at the 1997 posthumous collection of Wodehouse short school stories, Tales of Wrykyn and Elsewhere, featuring stories that first appeared in magazines from 1901-1911. No plot spoilers for once, except one that comes with an advance warning.

WIkipedia page for the book

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums links:

List of Doyle/Holmes references in Wodehouse's early works

Index to school stories viewable at Madame Eulalie

Guide to early series characters, and an attempted explanation of which Jackson is which

Other Wodehouse works mentioned

All of the school novels

Tales of St Austin's

Psmith in the City

The Prince and Betty

The Luck of the Bodkins

Not George Washington

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

"Treating of Cribs"

"The Fifteenth Man"

"From a Detective's Notebook" (The World of Mr Mulliner)

"The Great Sermon Handicap"

The Joan Romney stories

Also mentioned

Daniel H. Garrison and Neil Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse (Third Expanded Edition)

Tony Ring and Geoffrey Jaggard, Millennium Wodehouse Concordance

Henry Bohn's Classic Library (used as "cribs" by Edwardian schoolboys)

Barry Pain

The works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Otto Penzler (ed.) Sherlock

Peter Cannon, "The Adventure of the Noble Husband"

Without A Clue

Charles Hamilton, the Greyfriars Stories

F C Burnand, "Happy Thoughts"

Sir Walter Scott, "Marmion"

Lewis Carroll, "Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter Writing"

Punch

Wodehousekeeping Podcast links

Wodehousekeeping on Bluesky

Wodehousekeeping on Facebook

email: [email protected]

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Ian is rejoined by his brother Josh to scrutinise "Psmith in the City" AKA "The New Fold", the second Psmith novel, serialised in 1908-9 and collected in book form in 1910. It is a highly autobiographical account of reluctantly working in a London bank. Mike and Psmith's schooldays are behind them, but Mike is still fixated on cricket and Psmith is still out to cause disruption wherever possible. There will be spoilers and a soupçon of politics. Special thanks to the website Madam Eulalie's Rare Plums.

Article mentioned in the show that helped explain the reference to the Unionist party

Bradshaw's interview with Wodehouse, quoted in the episode

Mark Hodson's annotations of the novel

Other Wodehouse books and stories mentioned

The Gold Bat

Mike at Wrykyn (Jackson Junior)

Mike and Psmith (The Lost Lambs)

Psmith Journalist

Leave it to Psmith

Big Money

Not George Washington

Over Seventy (Autobiography)

The Luck Stone

The Swoop

Money in the Bank

"The Goalkeeper and the Plutocrat"

"L'affaire Uncle John"

"Comrade Bingo"

Wodehouse reference books mentioned and/or consulted

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

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

Also mentioned

The Fosters of Worcestershire

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Leslie Havergal Bradshaw

Hall Caine

Manchester United

Jimmy and Tom Turnbull

Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

George Ade

Jack Hobbs

The Marx Brothers

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Ian is joined by former teenage Wodehouse obsessive Gavin Bradbury to look at Plum's first country house novel, A Gentleman of Leisure AKA The Intrusion of Jimmy from 1910. The book is at once a light romantic story, an exposé of the corruption in the New York police force, a satire of "gentleman criminal" style stories, and a precurser to the Blandings novels. Ian is unable to be impartial about one of the first Wodehouse novels he ever read, whereas Gavin is more critical.

We discuss the differences between the novel and the related novella "The Gem Collector", why this book was such a hit on stage and screen, changing mores in acceptable morality in early twentieth century entertainment, how Jimmy Pitt differs from our ideal Wodehouse leading man, and what's still missing from the later classic formula.

Other Wodehouse books mentioned:

The World of Mr Mulliner

The Coming of Bill

Something Fresh

The Man Upstairs

The Heart of a Goof

Psmith in the City

Psmith, Journalist

The Luck of the Bodkins

Also mentioned:

Fawlty Towers

The Young Ones

The Kenny Everett Show

Coronation Street

A Sharp Intake of Breath

The Lennie and Jerry Show

Tony Hancock

James Cagney

Philadelphia Story

Bringing Up Baby

Cary Grant

Wodehouse TV adaptations

John Stapleton

Douglas Fairbanks

John Barrymore

Tim Key

E.W. Hornung, Raffles

(The real) Spike Mullins

Trading Places

Alan Bennett

Steve Coogan

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers

Sir Walter Scott, "Marmion"

The Seven Inches, "Stop Pestering Me"

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Ian looks at the final public school novel by Wodehouse, a lurid adventure story called The Luck Stone, first published in Chums magazine from 1908 to 1909 under the pseudonym "Basil Windham". It was first published in book form posthumously in 1997. There will be spoilers.

The story can be read here

Content note: national stereotyping, imperialism, racism.

Other Wodehouse works mentioned:

Performing Flea

Mike at Wrykyn

Mike and Psmith

The Head of Kays

Little Nugget

Psmith Journalist

"The Man Who Disliked Cats"

"Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch"

"The Metropolitan Touch"

The Mating Season

Not George Washington

Other books mentioned

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

Richard Usbourne, Wodehouse at Work to the end

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four

Rudyard Kipling, Kim

F. Anstey, Baboo Jabberjee

Frank Richards, The Greyfriars stories

Also mentioned:

Dennis the Menace/The Bash Street Kids (The Beano)

William Townend

Herbert Westbrook

Anthony Home

Lord Roberts

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Ian is joined by storyteller Matthew Bellwood to discuss Mike and Psmith, the second half of the double novel Mike, published in 1909. This is the debut of the beloved character Psmith, and the final public school novel by Wodehouse published in his lifetime.

There will be spoilers. May contain knuts.

Mike and Psmith at Project Gutenberg

The Lost Lambs (magazine version) at Madame Eulalie

Other Wodehouse works referenced:

Mike at Wrykyn

Psmith in the City

Psmith, Journalist

Leave it to Psmith

Something New

Joy in the Morning (Preface)

The Globe By The Way Book

"The Reformation of Study Sixteen"

"The Stone and the Weed"

"Society Gossip"

Also referenced:

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse At Work To The End

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Doris Buckler, "Thanks to Psmith"

Terry Pratchett

Douglas Adams

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm

Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Rupert D'Oyly-Carte (the inspiration for Psmith)

Sir Kreemy Knut (Sharp's Toffee mascot)

E C Segar, Thimble Theater

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sherlock Holmes stories

F Anstey, Babboo Jabberjee

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Rudyard Kipling, Stalky and Co

E W Hornung, the Raffles stories

C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, the Captain Kettle stories

Arthur Ransome

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Ian is rejoined by Alexander Rennie of the "Forgotten Towns" podcast to discuss Mike at Wrykyn, the first half of the double novel Mike, published in 1909. It's a public school story focused on cricket and introduces a new series character.

Other Wodehouse books mentioned

Mike and Psmith

Psmith in the City

Psmith Journalist

Leave it to Psmith

Very Good Jeeves

Ring For Jeeves (the novel where Jeeves appears without Bertie Wooster)

Laughing Gas

The Mating Season

A Gentleman of Leisure

Also referenced:

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook (copiously)

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work To The End

Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse, A Life in Letters (source of all the letters quoted)

Alec Waugh

Malcolm Muggeridge

George Orwell

The Foster family of Worcestershire

The Haileybury walkout

Clement Atlee

Various cricketers

Victoria Wood

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Ian is joined by composer Peter Falconer, of the How I Hobby podcast, to look at The Swoop! or, How Clarence Saved England: A Tale of the Great Invasion (1909) a spoof of three separate Edwardian trends: invasion literature, the boy scout movement, and the music hall. Thanks again to madameeulalie.org. There will be spoilers.

Content note: racism

Other Wodehouse works mentioned:

The Military Invasion of America (US version of the story)

The Next Invasion

Eggs, Beans and Crumpets

The Man Upstairs

Do Butlers Burgle Banks

Weekend Wodehouse

Love Among the Chickens

Over Seventy

The Inimitable Jeeves

Summer Lightning

The Prince and Betty

Also mentioned

Ionicus

Vladimir Nabokov

J R R Tolkien

John Le Carré

Shirley Jackson

William le Queux, The Invasion of 1910

Alfred and Hildebrand Harmsworth

Saki When William Came

Baden-Powell Scouting For Boys

George and Weedon Grossmith Diary of a Nobody

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (radio show)

Ici on parle français (play)

Ocean's Twelve (film)

Big Train (TV show)

Paul Hatcher, The World Stare-out Championship Final

John Major, My Old Man

Henry Lauder

Andy G, "Tawny Owl"

Aerated Bread Company

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Bart Kennedy

Edgar Wallace

Bugsy Malone

Douglas Adams

Rob Grant and Doug Naylor

Terry Pratchett

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I am joined by Gwen Sheldon to look at extracts from The Globe By The Way Book — A Literary Quick-Lunch for People Who Have Only Got Five Minutes to Spare (1908) in particular the spoof serial "Women, Wine and Song". We also look at "For Love or Honour" (1907) a serial from the Globe By the Way daily newspaper column. Both works were written with Herbert Westbrook, the Prince of Slackers. Thanks to Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website for sharing these out-of-print delights!

https://www.madameulalie.org/articles/Deconstructing_The_Globe_By_the_Way_Book.html

https://www.madameulalie.org/globe/women_wine_song_01.html

https://www.madameulalie.org/grp/For_Love_or_Honour.html

Also referenced:

"Jeeves Takes Charge" from Carry On, Jeeves

"Goodbye to All Cats" and "The Amazing Hat Mystery" from Young Men in Spats

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Wodehouse scholars John Dawson, Karen Shotting and Neil Midkiff

Lewis Carroll

William Haselden, the book's illustrator

The work of Glen Baxter

Hall Caine

Winston Churchill

Jonathan Swift

Alexander Pope

The Suffragette movement

Bioscopes and myrioramas

The radium craze

The Saphead (film)

Flanders and Swann, "A Song of the Weather"

E Phillips Oppenheim

Peter Motteaux (the "Was for him the work of a moment" chap)

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm

Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle

There is little more to tell.

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Ian Cockburn talks to Mora about the first of two collaborations with Herbert Westbrook, Not George Washington (1907), a semi-autobiographical novel about life in Edwardian London as a struggling writer. There will be spoilers.

Free eBook of Not George Washington at Project Gutenberg

Not George Washington public domain audiobook at LibriVox

(NB the book is not public domain in all countries)

Also mentioned in the podcast:

Reference books and resources:

Norman Murphy's A Wodehouse Handbook

Sophie Ratcliffe's P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

Daniel Garrison & Neil Midkiff Who's Who in Wodehouse

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums

Other Wodehouse books and stories

Over Seventy (memoir)

The Small Bachelor

Love Among the Chickens

A Gentleman of Leisure

"Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit" (Very Good, Jeeves)

"Best Seller" (Mulliner Nights)

"An Unfinished Collection"

"The Last Instance"

Other books

George Du Maurier, Trilby

Guy Thorne, When it was Dark (which I read about in Claud Cockburn's Bestseller)

Not mentioned in the podcast is the archetype of "struggling London writer novels", George Gissing's New Grub Street

This might be the painting of Napoleon and his generals Wodehouse meant.

For more about Westbrook check out the podcasts on The Gold Bat and on Love Among the Chickens

For more about Seymour Hicks check out the episode on The Head of Kay's

Mora's podcast (about the fantasy series/world Malazan) is Smiley's

The music for the Boxing jingle is by Shaun Day.

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