Quotations from P G Wodehouse are copyright of, and reprinted by permission of, the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate © 2012 The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

A Celebration of P G Wodehouse

at the Guildford Book Festival on 24th October 2008

by Jamie Jarrett

The day after our Society's Biennial Dinner saw yet another thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Guildford Book Festival. This was, apart from a family day on Saturday 25th, the closing event for the festival and a fitting tribute to
P G Wodehouse, who was born at 1 Vale Place, Epsom Road, Guildford on 15th October 1881. It was held in the Electric Theatre on Onslow St.

More than ably hosted by Jeff Thomson, the evening was the brainchild of Tony Ring. A large, happy audience gathered for Tony and many other Wodehousean luminaries to explore the life and work of Plum, illustrated with quotations from many of his books, plays and lyrics.

We were more than lucky to hear Hal Cazalet and Eliza Lumley sing many of Wodehouse's songs, accompanied on the piano by Stephen Higgins. This included only the second public rendition of the final verse of Till The Clouds Roll By - a verse which Wodehouse worked on just before he died on St. Valentine's day, 1975. The first time this was performed publicly was of course at the P G Wodehouse Society (UK)'s Biennial Dinner the evening before - see here. It was found a year or so ago by Tony, whilst carrying out some research using the PGW estate's archives.

We were further spoilt by Patron of the society Lara Cazalet, giving many interesting and amusing readings as only she can.

Also the inestimable Jonathan Cecil, famed for his roles in Shakespearean dramas and in Restoration comedies, but also of course for his numerous recordings of Wodehouse's novels on Chivers/BBC Audio Books, treated us to some immensely amusing extracts from varous novels. His reading about Freddie Widgeon's demise, from "Goodbye to All Cats", had me and others in tears of laughter!

Stephen, Eliza, Hal, Tony, Lara and Jeff on stage

The Guildford Book Festival is relatively young, compared to say Cheltenham, and has been going I think for about 10 years now. It was nice that they wished to celebrate one of the most important authors of the English language in this way. And what an enjoyable celebration it was!

Their website, if you are interested to find out more, can be accessed here.

The full programme from the evening was as follows:

First Part

Reading with quotations (read by Hal Cazalet, Lara Cazalet and Jeff Thomson) by Tony Ring in various chunks throughout the half

Verse one - Thoughts on a Recent Wooing - Lara

Verse 2 - Exposed - Hal

Verse 3 - Maud - Lara

Song 1 - You Never Knew About Me - Hal and Eliza Lumley

Song 2 - Non-Stop Dancing - Hal and Eliza

Reading 1 - The History of the Dance - Lara

TANGO - introduced by Jeff Thomson

Second Part

Reading with quotations (read by Hal Lara and Jeff) by Tony in various chunks throughout the half.

Reading by Jonathan Cecil - “Gally and Tea”

Reading by Jonathan - “Goodbye to All Cats”

Verse 4 - Reformed - Lara

Reading - Mervyn Keene, Clubman - Hal and Lara

Song 3 - Saturday Night - Hal and Eliza

Reading by Jonathan - “Thrillers”

Song 4 - Cleopatterer - Hal and Eliza

Song 5 - Till the Clouds Roll By - Hal and Eliza

During the interval Pig Racing took place, sponsored by Waterstone's, similar to the Pig Racing held at the Arrow Picnic earlier this year. It would seem that the Empress of Blandings has influenced a new literary trend, although I do not think she would have entered herself ...

Pig Racing about to commence!