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By Arthur and Elizabeth Findlay A crowded journey we had of it on the train to Green Park – no wonder Wodehouse preferred walking! – but arrived very early to be greeted warmly by Chairman Hilary Bruce and Jamie Jarrett. What a cosy cuddly club we are! Soon what has come to be known as the usual suspects began to arrive, and Hilary formally opened the meeting. There were apologies from three kenspeckle absentees: Christine Hewitt, our Membership Secretary, was nursing a bad cold; Chairman Hilary was without consort, Robert being busy elsewhere; and Murray Hedgecock was unable to attend. In Christine’s absence, the Society’s book was taken round by Elaine Ring. We wondered if we should be looking wisely at the pictures on the Arts Club walls. However, there are lots of them, and we soon gave up because we would have had no time for anything else. Jamie hornswoggled us into providing this account for the website, for which he was now responsible. Good luck to him! We did our best to look like the Efficient Baxter, but we fooled no-one. However, Jamie and Elin Murphy, Wooster Sauce Editor, were coolly professional, snappng pictures for website and magazine.
The speaker for the evening was David Jasen, who wrote the first biography of Wodehouse. He gave us a vivid account of PGW’s great contribution to the establishment of American musical theatre. The importance of Plum’s role in its development cannot be overstated. One wonders if it would have happened without him. Maybe, but it wouldn’t have been the same.
After David’s talk, which was much appreciated, there was much chat. Our Society may be a literary one, but it is, as Norman has previously pointed out, social and undeniably loud. On this occasion, Norman Murphy was quiet, being involved with some arcane research. He was entitled to be so, having done yet another Wodehouse walk, with Paul Rush as his back marker. People chatted about many things: favourite passages from PGW – why we should toast Noah when drinking wine – which of PGW’s books to recommend to someone new to Wodehouse – how Elaine was unlucky and had had an accident, and how husband Tony was lucky and actually sold a film camera. And more inconsequential chat. We all enjoyed the evening greatly. Although the bar was well used, we did not see any members dining in the Club. From the Arts Club point of view, we could be regarded as people with deep pockets and do they really need us? From our point of view, the Arts Club is a central venue and a lovely location. As Hilary said, we do need a permanent home; but whether it will be the Arts Club or not remains to be seen. |
