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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.
You can e-mail me at wodehousekeeping@gmail.com,
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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 [i]Psmith Journalist[/i], the third Psmith novel, and one of the first of Wodehouse's novels to be set in America. The novel first appeared in [i]The Captain[/i] 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 [i]The Prince and Betty[/i]
A tale of yellow journalism in gangland New York.
This podcast contains spoilers, and some discussion of racism.
You can e-mail me at wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
Put doubloons in the old oak chest at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping
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Wodehousekeeping cannot be muzzled
Other works by Wodehouse mentioned:
[i]Mike and Psmith[/i]
[i]The Luck of the Bodkins[/i]
[i]Psmith in the City[/i]
[i]The Prince and Betty[/i]
[i]A Gentleman of Leisure[/i]
The [i]Kid Brady[/i] stories
[i]The Little Nugget[/i]
[i]The Luck Stone[/i]
"The Episode of the Live Weekly"
Reference works consulted:
Sophie Ratcliffe, [i]P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters[/i]
Robert McCrum, [i]Wodehouse: A Life[/i]
Norman Murphy, [i]A Wodehouse Handbook[/i]
Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website
Also mentioned:
[i]Columbo, Strange Bedfellows[/i]
[i]Twin Peaks[/i]
[i]The Godfather[/i]
[i]Boardwalk Empire[/i]
Charles Dickens, [i]David Copperfield[/i]
[i]Colin From Accounts[/i]
Carol Vorderman
Ted Kessler, [i]Paper Cuts[/i]
Al Capone
Monk Eastman
Groucho Marx
[i]Doctor Who[/i]
Sandie Shaw, "Reviewing the Situation"
John Mitchell Jr.
Stella Gibbons, [i]Cold Comfort Farm[/i]
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.
You can e-mail me at wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
make a donation at ko-fi.com/wodehousekeeping
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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 wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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 wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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
Wodehousekeeping Podcast links
email: wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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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
email: wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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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
email: wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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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.
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
email: wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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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"
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)
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
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)
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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Ian talks to Ujjwal Deb about the eighth P. G. Wodehouse book, "The White Feather" (1907), a public school novel set at Wrykyn School, in some ways a sequel to "The Gold Bat". Spoilers feature early and often.
Topics discussed include:
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Ian talks to writer Thom Robinson about the seventh Wodehouse book, "Love Among the Chickens". There will be spoilers.
Among Wodehouse's books, this is:
The first intended for a general audience, as opposed to schoolboys or young children
The first to involve a love story
The first to introduce a major recurring character, which is Ukridge
The first with golf as a major element.
The first to be properly published in the USA
It exists in two versions (four versions actually, but two book versions): The original 1906 book and the 1921 rewrite. We look at both versions to discuss how the changes reflect his development as a writer.
Also discussed:
William Townend, who gave him the plot
Herbert Westbrook, partial model for Ukridge
The trip Wodehouse took to Lyme Regis with the "Lyon cubs", that provided the setting
Arthur Conan Doyle's The Stark-Munro Letters, a probable influence on the novel
The narrator Jeremy Garnet's description of his working life as a novelist, and how far it is likely autobiographical
The self-deprecating humour about being unable to write convincing female characters
The old "Have someone pushed into the water so you can rescue them" wheeze
Thom's old podcast with Hazel Smoczynska: https://soundcloud.com/yammerofthegods
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Ian talks to his brother Josh about the sixth Wodehouse book, "The Head of Kay's". It's yet another school story. There will be spoilers.
Also discussed or referenced
Summer Moonshine
Psmith in the City
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks
The Boys of Castle Cliff School by R. A. H. Goodyear
Toddy Scores Again by Alfred Judd
A Wodehouse Handbook by N. T. P. Murphy
Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop by Bob Stanley
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