| John Lithgow's Stories
By Heart at the Lyttelton Theatre,
London. 19th and 26th October 2009. Report by Jamie Jarrett John Lithgow, of Third Rock from the Sun fame and many other programmes and films, appeared recently at the Lyttelton Theatre in London, which is part of the National Theatre complex on the South Bank. About 20 members of the Society went along for his first performance and it turned out to be a highly enjoyable and memorable evening. Lithgow performed two short stories, both of which had meaning for him in a family context. These stories were Uncle Fred flits by and Haircut by P G Wodehouse and Ring Lardner respectively. Lithgow had used Plum's story to cheer up his father after a major operation and credited this with making his father laugh again and in no small way helping start his father's recovery. He showed a consummate skill in portraying each and every character (about 11 or 12 in all) in this hilarious story and had the audience in rapture. With Haircut also, although a story by parts funny and others very reflective on the nature of life, Lithgow was supreme. This really was an event not to be missed. It was his first appearance on stage in the UK and was also his 64th birthday. If John Lithgow appears again in this country I will certainly be going along ... The Times wrote a very good article on the evening which you can read by clicking here. Bobbles and Plum on the South Bank Report by Norman Murphy If you get the Observer newspaper, you will have seen the piece entitled 'Earliest Wodehouse satires discovered' which told the world that Calder's Bookshop at 51 The Cut, Waterloo (which, I suppose, is technically on the South Bank) had a book launch on 25 July of "Bobbles and Plum" edited by Paul Spiring. In 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906, Wodehouse and a friend named Bertram Fletcher Robinson wrote four humorous playlets on events of the day. These were published in the Daily Express, Vanity Fair and The World magazine. The playlets dealt with such topics as Joseph Chamberlain and his Tariff Reform that split the country; Keir Hardie, the first Labour MP; the Suffragettes; Gaiety Girls and the Entente Cordiale. Although the playlets are noted in the McIlvaine bibliography, they are not well known and Paul Spiring decided they deserved a new audience. It was their re-publication under the title "Bobbles and Plum" that we were there to celebrate. It was a pleasant evening and about 30 people crowded into the bookshop, which doubles up as a miniature theatre. The evening began with Hilary Bruce and myself enjoying drinks and canapés and meeting lots of people, including June Arnold who devises the Wodehouse acrostics for Wooster Sauce. It was a different 'feel' from the normal Wodehouse evening but nonetheless enjoyable for all that, though, since Hilary and I were booked as speakers, we both felt that slight tension which prevents one from accepting any more than two glasses of wine. The formal proceedings began with Hilary, who wrote the Foreword to "Bobbles and Plum", pointing out how long-lost works by famous writers seem to be fashionable just now. A hitherto unknown Wodehouse short story emerged this year and a lost Graham Greene work is in the news this week. She reminded us how Wodehouse and Robinson were both still making their names when they wrote the playlets but how these early efforts gave clear indications of the wit and skill with words we would come to know so well later. She concluded by making the point that there are two sides to this question of reviving a writer's early work. Sometimes it was not very good and, sometimes, she felt, the writer would rather it was forgotten. In the case of the playlets, however, she had no doubts. She was delighted to see them re-published. I was on next and told the audience how I had spent years reading everything I could about English social life from 1884-1914 since that was the world in which Wodehouse grew up and the world in which his novels were often set. I then pointed out that each playlet has at least one song – and each is immediately recognisable as a straight imitation of WS Gilbert. Nothing wrong in that; Wodehouse regarded Gilbert as a librettist genius and just about every writer of light verse of the time tried to write in Gilbert's style. I then turned to Conan Doyle, with whom Robinson will always be associated (he gave Doyle the story of the Hound of the Baskervilles). I told the audience how Wodehouse and Doyle had probably first met in 1903, how they had played for the Authors against the Actors at Lord's and how they used to lunch together at the Constitutional Club (we know it as the Senior Conservative). I concluded by mentioning a few of my discoveries about the sources of some of Wodehouse's characters and places; Stanley Ukridge, the Drones Club and Bertie's Aunt Agatha. And saying that "Bobbles and Plum" had inspired me to look at if Wodehouse ever used Bertram Fletcher Robinson as a source for a character. Well, I won't say I definitely found him but I found someone who fits very well. I won't give the name here but most readers of this website should know my methods by now. Think about it. Paul Spiring then told us how he was originally a Conan Doyle enthusiast, had read much about him and learned of his friendship with Robinson who, while staying in Cromer, had told Doyle the legend of the savage Dartmoor hound. He told us how he had then looked deeper into Robinson's life and career as a writer and editor and had resolved to bring his name back to the prominence he felt it deserved. He described his delight when he discovered the connection with Wodehouse and their working together, probably from the time Wodehouse wrote the Parrot poems for the Daily Express, where Robinson then worked. He then went on to describe the main topics of the four playlets and concluded by reading one of the songs (for my money, certainly by Wodehouse) where, by the third line, people had recognised the Gilbert source and were quietly humming Sullivan's accompaniment. A very pleasant evening. There now follows a review of "Bobbles and Plum" by Norman Murphy "Bobbles & Plum", edited by Paul Spiring, is published by MX Publishing Ltd. 109 pages, price £9:99. The core of the book is the re-publication of four playlets written by Wodehouse and Bertram Fletcher Robinson from 1903 to 1906. The book opens with a short eulogy to Robinson on his death in 1907 written by Jessie Pope (whom Wodehouse also knew) followed by a Foreword by Hilary Bruce. There is then a thirteen-page introduction by Norman Murphy and Tony Ring which summarises the careers of the two men, hypothesises on their meeting during the Parrot poem craze and discusses their subsequent collaboration in the playlets and Robinson's commissioning short stories from Wodehouse. We then get the four playlets which deal with the political and social events of the time that everybody talked about. There was some comment in the Observer on Wodehouse being 'political', but the writer of this article had not realised that, from the time Wodehouse got work on The Globe in 1903, that was his job. He had to turn out a humorous column each day on what was topical and, in the early 1900s, that meant Chamberlain and Tariff Reform, the split among the Conservatives and Liberals over Tariffs and Home Rule for Ireland, Suffragettes, the activities – and expenditure – of the new London County Council, the Entente Cordiale and Gaiety Girls marrying into the aristocracy. It may seem all very dated today. Of course it is but, if you have read The Parrot and Other Poems, you will already have a feel for the period. In any event, the playlets (49 pages in total) are followed by 36 pages of explanatory notes. An interesting, enjoyable publication though slightly marred by occasional typos including, I regret to say, 'Woodhouse' for Wodehouse. Wodehouse On The Web By Geoffrey Millward If you were to type ‘p g wodehouse’ into the Google search engine, you would be presented with 836,000 ‘hits’. This is obviously far too many to go into in any great detail as the vast majority are only passing references. However, the main sites dedicated to PGW are presented at the top of the list. So, concentrating on the first couple of pages thrown up by Google, here are a few websites that may be worth pursuing. We are, of course, all familiar with the Society’s own website at www.pgwodehousesociety.org.uk so I won’t dwell on it, but it is a good a place as any to start. Our sister site in America is at www.wodehouse.org which has links to other international groups and our own, as well as chapters in the States. Next up is the extensive entry in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org.This has a brief biography and many links for novels and short stories. There are also pages on all the main characters, as well as thumbnail sketches of the minor characters who crop up in the Jeeves, Blandings, Drones, Mulliner and Golfing stories amongst others. At the bottom of the main page there are links to other sites. If you go to www.pgwodehousebooks.com and click on the ‘P G Wodehouse Biography’ you will be directed to another page where you can access the original artwork for the dust jackets of both the British and American first editions. (Please see also our article 'Cartoons and Coronets - the genius of Osbert Lancaster' below on this page). Other pages list the short stories and serialised novels as they appeared in ‘Strand’ and ‘Chums’ magazines. On the subject of novels and short stories, www.wodehouse.co.uk has links to Arrow Books and to our own society web site. Many booksellers who stock both new and second-hand editions of Wodehouse have their own websites. Amazon is probably the best known online bookseller. Go to www.amazon.co.uk rather than .com as this is the British site. (.com will guide you to the US parent site). www.abebooks.co.uk and .com (US) also have an extensive range. Audio books are available from the above sites as well as from www.audible.co.uk. The BBC, on which many of the programmes were first broadcast, also has it's own on-line shop. If you want to hear brief extracts from some of these audiobooks go to www.youtube.com. Use the link from Google. For those of you who cannot get to London or have never been on one of Norman Murphy’s Wodehouse Walks, you can now take a virtual tour thanks to Google’s controversial ‘Street View’ site. Go to http://maps.google.co.uk and zoom in on London. Negotiate your way to Mayfair, just north of Piccadilly, and locate Charles Street. In the top left hand corner of the map you will see a little yellow figure. Click on this and drag it to the junction of Charles Street and Hays Mews. By using the computer mouse you should be able to find the Running Footman pub on which Jeeves’s Junior Ganymede Club was based. Opposite the pub is No.47 Charles Street, the London residence of Aunt Dahlia. With regards to Hays Mews itself, this formed the basis for Halsey Court, home to Chimp Twist and others. To locate the Drones Club we need to find two sites, 18 Clifford Street (on the corner of Old Burlington Street) and 34 Dover Street (between Stafford St. and Hay Hill). The Drones was based on the Bucks Club in Stafford Street but was located at the Bath Club in Dover Street. Sadly the original building of the latter was destroyed during WWII and was replaced by the more modern building opposite Brown’s Hotel. Finally come south of Piccadilly, down St. James Street and then along King Street to the junction with Bury Street. Christie’s is on the ground floor but four storeys above is the balcony of a flat use d by both Galahad and Freddie Threepwood. PGW himself also stayed there in 1921. If you now have a taste of how good Norman Murphy’s Wodehouse Walks are, there will be some exciting news on this subject shortly which we will also announce on this web site. As you will probably realise, this is just scratching the surface of what is available out there. Wooster Sauce, the quarterly magazine for society members, and this our society web site, regularly have articles with references to relevant web sites. But if you find anything that may be of interest to other members, please share it with everyone. The Inimitable P. G. Wodehouse: The Story of His Life and a Treasury of His Wit by Mark Hichens;
illustrations by Wendy McLerie Reviewed by Norman Murphy Mark Hichens is clearly a Wodehouse enthusiast, and his book reflects this. Within the compass of what is essentially a short work (166 pages of text, followed by 54 pages of Wodehouse quotations and an abbreviated list of Wodehouse books), he gives us a biography of Wodehouse as well as descriptions of his major fictional characters. Further, he seeks to demonstrate how what he calls ‘autobiographical overtones’ appear in Wodehouse’s writing. It is difficult to find the right words to describe the book; the nearest I can get is ‘cursory’ or ‘superficial’. Mr Hichens says he is aware of recent biographies and research into Wodehouse’s life but appears to have decided to ignore much of their findings in his book. I expected to see some mention of the part Wodehouse’s family played in his stories (four clerical uncles and his many aunts, one of whom he frankly stated was the basis of Bertie’s Aunt Agatha). I also expected to read some comment on his excellent school stories but was surprised to find that Mike is just about the only one mentioned and equally surprised that Mr Hichens equates these to Charles Hamilton’s stories in the Magnet and Gem (which had not yet come into existence). Perhaps I missed them, but I recall no mention of the golf stories, the Drones Club or Mr Mulliner; however, possibly such omissions can be accepted in a volume as short as this. In the main, Mr Hichens gives a reasonable account of Wodehouse’s long life, though he makes a number of assumptions and generalisations that are not backed up by reference to other, more authoritative sources.
There are several errors and omissions. I was surprised, for example, by the statement that Wodehouse had spent his childhood in the care of a ‘series of ladies who, though not necessarily related, were always known as aunts’. Apart from the women who ran the two kindergarten schools he attended, the ladies who looked after Wodehouse till he was fifteen were definitely aunts. I also note that there was no mention of Wodehouse’s older brother Armine attending Dulwich (a major factor in PGW going there himself) – nor indeed, any mention of any of Wodehouse’s brothers. Unless one knew better, one might assume from this book that Wodehouse was an only child. Then there are the factual slips which, though small in themselves, lead one to doubt Mr Hichens’s research. These include Uncle Fred’s name given incorrectly (p41), Bertie Wooster attending Cambridge rather than Oxford (p75), and a letter quoted in which Wodehouse says a nest egg of £350,000 quid is as much as anybody could want (p110) – the amount is £50,000 in the photocopy I saw. Further, the Wodehouses decided to buy a house in Le Touquet in 1934, not 1935, and Leonora died in May 1944, not ‘in the last weeks of the war’ (p144). And then there are quotations which I did not recognise or could not reconcile with my knowledge of Wodehouse. I may be completely wrong, but I cannot recollect Honoria Glossop being ‘built on the lines of the Albert Hall’ and I was puzzled by the quoted description of her on page 80 that ends: ‘She may even have boxed for the University'. My edition of The Inimitable Jeeves has: ‘I’m not sure she didn’t box for the Varsity while she was up.’ I was equally puzzled by the quoted description on page 78 of Florence Craye, ‘with a wonderful profile but steeped to the gills in serious purpose and reading books on such subjects as idiopsychological ethics’. I found both parts of this description, but not joined together in this way. If this book had been published thirty-five years ago, I imagine it might have become a reference source for Wodehouse devotees, but Richard Usborne’s Wodehouse at Work and the various subsequent biographies have given us much more reliable information than Mr Hichens does. In fairness to him, his book would be of interest to someone just beginning to read Wodehouse and knowing little about him. To such a reader, the occasional misquotations and minor errors of fact would be of little importance, though an aficionado will find them very irritating. What I regret, however, is that Mr Hichens’s apparent desire for brevity led him to end the book with two pages purportedly listing ‘The Books of P. G. Wodehouse’. There are forty-seven titles shown, less than half the usually accepted ninety-eight. That is brevity carried too far. Tony Ring interviews Director Ian Forrest of The Theatre by the Lake Below on this page you will see details of a production of Summer Lightning which will appear from June at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. Click here for an interesting interview with Director Ian Forrest by leading Wodehousean Tony Ring. Come On, Jeeves to appear at Sudbury Come On, Jeeves will be performed by the Sudbury Dramatic Society at The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury, Suffolk from 28th April until 2nd May. Each performance is at 7:45 p.m. For tickets and further information, click here and go to the Coming Soon I section of their website, or call 01787 374745. Tony Ring, co-founder of our Society, asked the Director Richard Fawcett a number of interesting questions to which we have received a reply which not only throws light upon the play, but also the 'dramatic' process in staging plays. Below are Tony's questions, followed by Richard's reply. Richard is not only the director, but also the Chief Constable in the play. Tony Ring's questions: I am writing from The P G Wodehouse Society (UK), concerning your theatre's forthcoming production of Come On, Jeeves, to which we were alerted by one of our members living in your area. 1 How did Come On, Jeeves come to be chosen? Does your programme always include a number of light comedies from some decades ago, or do you regard this as a bit of an experiment? 2 I presume you are aware of the tour of the show last year. Did you see a production? Or do you like to start from a blank sheet? I know that Ian Dickens made some minor changes to the published text for his production – have you found any need to update the language or make significant changes to scenes? 3 Do you generally find (and specifically with this text) that today's audiences can cope with a play of that length? (I have heard some comment to the effect that two-and-a-quarter hours including interval is as much as many modern audiences can manage!) Do you expect a good proportion of younger people (say under 25) in the audience? 4 Am I right to assume your company are wholly amateur? In casting, do you look for people who might be familiar with some of Wodehouse's work? If any of the cast do read Wodehouse, would it be possible to get a quotation or two from them about the problems or otherwise of conveying his characters on stage? On behalf of the Society, may I wish you and your cast every success for the production, and hope that you get full houses. Richard Fawcetts reply: As a Society, Sudbury Dramatic is permanently in rehearsal or in production, staging at least six shows a year including a pantomime. Programming policy is therefore to set up a balanced season of plays. Come On, Jeeves, for example, was preceded by Glengarry Glen Ross and will be followed by Daisy Pulls It Off. This time last year we had just staged Caucasian Chalk Circle and were about to perform An Ideal Husband. This will indicate that we don’t feel our audiences need to escape from the Auditorium by ten o’clock, although this is a time we like to aim for when the entertainment is lighter. We would be seriously concerned if we perceived directors looking to a curtain later than 10.30, but this would be an anxiety on behalf of our casts as much as our audiences – our actors, after all, do have to be back on stage tomorrow, typically after a day’s work. In general, we like to feel our shows are coming down by 10.20 at the latest (we go up at 7.45). Clearly Glengarry was down well before that time. [Click here to view the poster with which Sudbury Dramatic Society is advertising Come On, Jeeves.] We draw on a fairly deep pool of performers, encouraging new blood by open and fair auditions and looking to the young persons’ drama staged at the Quay as a potential part of that new blood. A fair number of our potential actors have had – or will go on to have – professional experience, but mostly we are amateurs. By and large, our amateurs do have an active interest in music or drama that takes them to professional and other shows both here in the Quay Theatre and elsewhere. My own cast for Come On, Jeeves is varied in these respects, but what they have in common is considerable performing experience. I did not look to familiarity with Wodehouse when casting and I actually have no idea what other experience of PGW any of them has. I am persuaded that they have hugely enjoyed rehearsing Jeeves, and anticipate that they will hugely enjoy the run which opens on 28 April. Rehearsals have made it apparent how skilled PGW and Guy Bolton were, even more so than a mere reading of the play can reveal. If it’s true, as PGW asserts in the Preface, that all the work was left to GB, then even more credit is due – but I take that to be pure tongue in cheek. I saw the touring show in Chelmsford last March and very much enjoyed it. I don’t think I was unduly swayed in any major respect by the professional Jeeves – in fact I’d already done a considerable amount of my prepping work (on the basis that it’s always good to be at least twelve months ahead). With regard to the text, I/we have found no need to make any radical changes to the three Acts, although we will not be staging the dog Pomona. She will however be mentioned. There are a number of occasions on which updating has seemed wise, and I am happy to acknowledge the pro show’s preference for dish of the day over table d’hôte. Summer Lightning to appear at Keswick The Theatre-by-the-Lake, Keswick, has included Giles Havergal's successful adaptation of Summer Lightning as one of the three productions to be staged in repertory in its Main House during the 2009 Summer Season, which lasts from 23 May to 7 November. The first performance is on the 5th June, and a complete list of the performances appears below. The two other productions are Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, by an experienced playwright chappie named William Shakespeare. The theatre's website is here. Click 'Book now' to check dates and make bookings, or telephone the Booking Office on 017687 74411. The schedule of performances is: Matinees (at 2pm): July 29; August 19; September 9 & 30; October 21 & 31 Evening Performances (at 8pm): June: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 27 July: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 28, 29 August: 3, 8, 13, 14, 18, 19, 24, 29 September: 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 19, 24, 25, 29, 30 October: 5, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 26, 31 November: 5, 6 For some interesting commentary on Keswick's Theatre By The Lake by The Guardian please click here. P G Wodehouse to appear in British Film Institute event The British Film Institute is running a series of 'Monitor' programmes during April, on the South Bank in London. On 20th April they are screening interviews of a selection of Humorists, Novelists and Angry Young Men. In one of these categories is a 1960 interview of Plum at his New York home. The event also includes pieces on Spike Milligan, Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis. Click here to go to the BFI website for further details. Special Offer on P G Wodehouse Silent Movies In 1924 a series of six half-hour silent movies was produced by Stoll Pictures, each featuring a P G Wodehouse golf story. In 1997, Talking Business Ltd reissued three titles (Rodney Fails to Qualify, Chester Forgets Himself and The Long Hole) from this series, and offered them as a single videotape, running for 1 hour and 40 minutes using VHS technology. Contemporary members of the Society had a chance to buy copies at the time. Offer for members UK members can purchase an unlimited number of copies of the video while stocks last, at £3 per video. The charge for non-UK-resident members is £5 per video. These prices include postage and packing. Please note that these videos are for Region 2 only. Members can also read details of this offer in the March 2009 edition of Wooster Sauce. Offer for non-members Non-members resident in the UK can purchase an unlimited number of copies of the video while stocks last, at £8 per video. The charge for non-members who are not resident in the UK is £10 per video. These prices include postage and packing. Please note that these videos are for Region 2 only. Contact email address If you are interested in this offer, please contact Tony Ring at tonyring@pgwodehousesociety.org.uk, but do remember to state your name and address and the number of videos required. Also please state your membership number if you are a Society member, otherwise we will assume that you are not a member, and the method by which you propose to pay (see below). Payment Please note that we cannot accept any currency other than sterling, as the currency conversion costs and banking charges which would be borne by the Society would be excessive. Payment in pounds can be made by a sterling cheque or bank draft made payable to ‘The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)’ or by a payment in sterling through Paypal (www.paypal.com). The Society’s account with Paypal is ‘treasurer@pgwodehousesociety.org.uk’. Please enter your name and address in the space provided for as ‘Notes’. The Society would like to thank the owner of Talking Business Ltd for making this offer possible. P G Wodehouse Stories to appear on BBC Radio 4 Wodehouse Readings on the Radio Members will be delighted to learn that BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting readings of a Wodehouse novel and short story this spring. First up, on Radio 4 Classic Serial, is Something Fresh, adapted by Martin Jarvis and featuring a sterling cast that includes Helen McCrory, Jared Harris, Joanne Whalley, Jill Gascoine, and Martin himself as the Earl of Emsworth. This adaptation will have a scene from the original Something New which was excluded from the British equivalent book Something Fresh. Broadcast dates are: Episode 1: Sunday, 29 March, 3 p.m.
(rpt Sat., 4 April, 9 p.m.) In May we will have the pleasure of hearing the newly discovered PGW story ‘Providence and the Butler’ on Radio 4’s An Afternoon Reading. The provisional date for this broadcast is Tuesday, 19 May, at 3.30 p.m. Please check radio listings or this website for the exact day and time. (See also our home page for a related story.) Come On, Jeeves on at Lechlade A production of Come on, Jeeves is on at the New Memorial Hall, Lechlade, Thursday February 19th to Saturday 21st. Tickets are £6.50 for adults and £4 for 16s and under - phone 01367 253351 for information. The P G Wodehouse Society (UK) sends its best wishes to the cast for a succesful three days. We will feature a local newspaper report of the production here if possible. John McGlinn, 55, Restorer of Musicals, Is Dead The New York Times recently reported the death of John McGlinn, a conductor and musical historian who recreated musicals like Show Boat, Anything Goes and No, No, Nanette. McGlinn also paid special attention to those musicals known as the Princess Musicals – devised by Jerome Kern, with assistance from PG Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, in the first two decades of the 20th century and performed at the Princess Theater on Broadway. He was also at one stage in charge of the Packard project to re-record all the Kern musicals, although this project did not come to fruition. McGlinn died at the age of 55 of a suspected heart attack. If you wish to read the New York Times article in full please use this link: NYT. 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read Robert McCrum wrote an article on The Best Of PG Wodehouse for the Guardian on 19 January 2009, in which he selects his favourite PGW books as part of the Guardian's '1000 Novels Everyone Must Read' series. Robert chose these books: Something Fresh
(1915) He also wrote an interesting article about Plum's life and his novels. If you would like to read this article in full please use the following link: Robert McCrum is the well known author of a biography of P G Wodehouse entitled Wodehouse a Life, which is published by Penguin books. P G Wodehouse – Legend Of Literature An interesting article, with the title above, has appeared on the AbeBooks website. In this article it says "Our second featured iconic author is none other than the wry, witty and always funny PG Wodehouse ... he remains one of the 10 most searched-for authors on AbeBooks year after year." You can read the full article by clicking here. Below the article you can also read some comments by Kris Fowler, who is President of The Wodehouse Society. This US-based society is a sister society to the P G Wodehouse Society (UK), whose website you are currently reading! In addition the AbeBooks website has also published a Top 10 Funniest Books list and Right Ho, Jeeves was voted top! You can visit the home page of the AbeBooks website here. Cartoons
& Coronets : the Genius of Osbert Lancaster An exhibition recently ran at the Wallace Collection in London featuring the artwork for some dust jackets of PG Wodehouse novels. Society member Jonathan Hopson has kindly sent us this review of the exhibition. For more information on the Wallace Collection please go to www.wallacecollection.org. by Jonathan Hopson This centenary retrospective attracted 25,000 people in the first six weeks and is believed to have been the most popular exhibition ever held at the Wallace Collection. It was also probably the funniest, given the constant chuckling overheard on my visit, and afforded plenty to interest the Wodehouse aficionado. Crammed into two small galleries, the range of Lancaster’s talents as an artist and writer could not be displayed in depth but the excellent accompanying catalogue* expands more fully on his career as a cartoonist, illustrator, stage designer, architectural satirist, traveller, wit and dandy. He had enjoyed an Edwardian upbringing with Wodehousean overtones in a large eccentric family (including several aunts) supported by a fortune made in Hong Kong by his maternal grandfather. Lancaster’s talent for drawing was nurtered at Charterhouse (where Richard Usborne was a contemporary) and he would follow in a tradition of Old Carthusian cartoonists led by Thackeray, John Leech and his idol Max Beerbohm. After leaving Oxford and failing his Bar exams, Lancaster took to journalism and eventually established himself at the Daily Express where his pocket cartoons ran daily for some forty years, providing a standpoint for sardonic observation of the tides of social change. The exhibition highlighted Lancaster’s role as an illustrator of books popular with a post-war audience fascinated by the charms of the fading upper classes, such as Nancy Mitford’s Noblesse Oblige and Anthony Powell’s novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time (described by an anonymous wag as “Proust translated by Wodehouse”). He created ten Powell covers for Penguin Books until the publisher dropped him in 1967. A piqued Powell then left Penguin for Fontana and Lancaster found happy employment designing jackets for the UK editions of Wodehouse’s last eight novels. The examples on display were Much Obliged, Jeeves and Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin, while the artwork for Lancaster’s first design Company for Henry is reproduced in the catalogue and shows off his skill as an architectural draughtsman. Also of note is the design for The Girl in Blue which depicts the novel’s characters in the form of miniature portraits surrounding the eponymous Gainsborough painting, and which seems to prefigure The Littlehampton Bequest, a series of artistic parodies exhibited by Lancaster at the National Portrait Gallery in 1973. The following year he contributed a series of drawings entitled Great Houses of Fiction Revisited to The Destruction of the Country House exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Included alongside Locksley Hall and Mansfield Park is Blandings Castle’s imagined fate as National Pig Board Research Centre with a rather melancholy Lord Emsworth shown musing in the foreground. This elegiac vision (reproduced in the catalogue) reflects the judgement of the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith that “Lancaster also shares P G Wodehouse’s sense of fantasy, and in particular the latter’s keen appreciation of the light that shines, paradoxically, from the reactions and utterances of the ineffably dim”. * Cartoons &
Coronets : the Genius of Osbert Lancaster Antique Cow Creamers Many of you will know the significance of a certain Cow Creamer which Bertie Wooster disparagingly labelled a modern Dutch replica. Below is the wording for what is now an antique Dutch Cow Creamer recently offered for sale on eBay: "This is a very rare, superb quality hallmarked Dutch silver cow creamer. According to my local auctioneer it was made around the 1860s. The cow is naturalistically modeled with crumpled horns and a look of bewilderment on her face and the swishing tail is the handle. The cream pours from the cow's mouth. There is a fly perched on the cover. The hallmarks are also on the cover. The detail is truly amazing. I have seen a few cow creamers over the years and this is the best by far, sheer quality. The cow even has udders. The creamer measures 5.5 inches in length from the tail to the nose and stands 3. 5 inches tall. Condition is perfect with dents, splits or old repairs at all. There are no monograms." Empress of Blandings becomes a Society member! As reported recently in Wooster Sauce, the in-house magazine for members of our society, a pub called The Empress of Blandings has recently become a member! The pub is owned, appropriately enough, by the family-run brewery Hall and Woodhouse. Hall and Woodhouse are well known for their ales such as Badgers and Tangle Foot. The Empress of Blandings pub is in Copythorne, Hampshire and was visited by the editor of Wooster Sauce, Elin Murphy, along with Jean Tillson, a Wodehousean from the US. Amongst other things they noticed that the pub sign features a painting of a Berkshire taken from The Pig - Breeding, Rearing and Marketing, by Sanders Spencer, which PG Wodehouse may well have seen on his visits to Hunstanton Hall in Norfolk. It transpires that the retail director of Hall and Woodhouse, David Hoare, is a PGW fan and thought of renaming the pub to its current name when the company acquired and refurbished it a few years ago. He discovered Wodehouse's connection with Hunstanton Hall and then the Sanders Spencer book, which gave him the illustration for the pub sign. There is also PGW quotation on the wall outside: "The Empress of Blandings was as nearly circular as a pig can be without bursting. She resembled a captive balloon with ears and a tail." If you are in the area and would like to visit this pub, please go to the following website and go to the pub search section: If you wish to know more about the significance of The Empress of Blandings, a leading 'character' within Wodehouse's Emsworth novels, please see the report on The Royal County of Berkshire Show in our Recent Events section of this website, or the article called Buckle's End Of Term Report, which follows. Buckle's End Of Term Report Members of the P G Wodehouse Society (UK) will know that the Society sponsors a Berkshire sow called Buckle. Buckle lives at the Church Farm Rare Breeds Centre at Stow Bardolph and her 'end of term report' from committee member Paul Rush is: Buckle had 10 fine piglets this year having suffered a phantom pregnancy last year. She is expecting again and is due to produce another litter before the Easter holidays. In true Empress style, Buckle's companion Toggle caused concern when he didn't come out of his hut for food one morning. The reason being he had become too wide to get out of the door! He had to be rescused by turning the hut upside down to free him! The reason the Society sponsors Buckle is that a famous fictional hero of P G Wodehouse's Emsworth novels is of course the prize fat Berkshire sow "The Empress of Blandings". Not only do we sponsor Buckle, but we also sponsor the annual Berkshire pig Champion of Champions prize at the Royal Berkshire Show (please see our report under the Recent Events section of this website about this show and our relationship with the Berkshire Pig Breeders Society - click here). The Berkshire breed is now rare and is regarded as VULNERABLE, so the support from our Society is important for its future. You can read about the work at Church Farm Rare Breeds Centre by going to their website: www.churchfarmstowbardolph.co.uk. Information on the Berkshire can be found within the Pigs section of their website. Also please take a look at the Black Berkshire Pigs section on this website by clicking on the title to the left of this screen. The British Library launches a CD set including P G Wodehouse talking about Jeeves and Wooster The British Library have written to the P G Wodehouse Society (UK) announcing the launch of 'two major audio titles': The Spoken Word: British Writers and The Spoken Word: American Writers. Each title features 3 CDs along with a booklet. They cost £19.95 inc VAT each, plus postage and packing of £1.00 for the UK and £2.00 for overseas. The reason the British Library has drawn our attention to the recordings is that the British Writers collection contains a recording of P G Wodehouse talking about Jeeves and Wooster. This is the first time that this recording has been made commercially available. To find out more, please visit the British Library online shop at www.bl.uk/shop from 23 October 2008. The Guardian has issued a review of these CDs, including this comment on Plum: "One of the jolliest interviewees is PG Wodehouse, in conversation with Alistair Cooke in 1963. They talk jocularly about a new theory that automation is going to throw so many people out of work that by the year 2000 every middle-class family will need four servants to keep people employed." Please use the link below if you wish to read the full article: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/22/british-library-recordings-writers The Wit and Wisdom of PG Wodehouse appears in the Daily Express on 22 September 2008 Many of you will know of the book The Wit and Wisdom of PG Wodehouse, compiled and edited by Tony Ring and published by Hutchinson in 2007. This wonderful compilation of quotes is now published in paperback by Arrow Books on 2nd October 2008. On 22nd September 2008 the Daily Express ran a full-page article on this. In a similar vein to the Sunday Telegraph article mentioned below, here is part of the introductory wording to a host of quotes from the book: In these uncertain times, we all need cheering up – so to start your week with a laugh or a wry smile here are some of the very best of Wodehouse's witticisms. There was also wording from Robert McCrum, who says PG Wodehouse: promises a release from everyday cares into a paradise of innocent comic mayhem ... the perusal of a few pages rarely fails to banish the demons of darkness and despair. Alongside the many PGW quips were also photographs of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in character as Jeeves and Wooster and also a photograph of Plum himself. Books Monthly October 2008 edition features Arrow Books and our Society The latest edition of Books Monthly, the excellent free online literary magazine, features a lengthy article on the many novels by PG Wodehouse now being published by Arrow Books. The article begins: Oh, I say, there's a splendid Society devoted to the works of PG Wodehouse, don't you know? Click on that rather spiffing picture of Berte Wooster below and take a look. If you then click on a picture of Bertie Wooster you are linked through to the homepage of this website! The article progresses with pictures of of covers of all the Arrow books, a synopsis of each book and a section of quotations praising PG Wodehouse from many notable people such as Julian Fellowes, Stephen Fry, Simon Callow, Ben Elton, Douglas Adams and Simon Brett to name a few. Finally there is a brief About PG Wodehouse section. Here is a link for you to enjoy: www.booksmonthly.co.uk/wodehouse.html Our thanks to Paul Norman of Books Monthly for highlighting this to us. 50 Reasons to Love Britain On 7th September 2008 the Sunday Telegraph published an article in it's magazine called 50 Reasons to Love Britain as an antidote to the credit crunch, crime and all that is gloom and doom at the moment. We are happy to report that PGW was number three on the list, our only gripe being that he should of course have been first. Below is the wording by Joseph Connolly, who is obviously a wonderfully perceptive cove: 3. Washout summer, credit crunch blues, holidays over: none of it matters. There are nearly 100 books by PG Wodehouse to read and reread – wallow in the wonderful world where all is sunny (and funny). 'Plum', as he was affectionately called, is a cure for all known ills. J.C. Celebrities Wish You Were Here Ben Elton has sent a postcard from his favourite books, PGW novels, as part of the National Year Of Reading event. Here is the postcard with its wording below as the picture is not too clear:
Dear Reader Here is a link to a document which explains this event. Ghost stories The Nunkie Theatre Company is presenting "Oh Whistle ...", based on the ghost stories of M R James, at the Baron's Court Theatre, London between Tuesday 9 December and Sunday 4 January. Every Christmas, M R James (1862 -1936) would write and perform new tales, to entertain friends in his rooms in King’s College, Cambridge. A century later, these tales still have the power to terrify and amuse. This unique interpretation gives seasonal theatregoers the opportunity to experience these eerie masterpieces in the manner in which they were originally enjoyed – as ghostly confections, told to a rapt audience. For literature lovers, M R James is as quintessential a part of Christmas entertainment as the moral tales of Dickens. The Nunkie Theatre Company is offering members of the P G Wodehouse Society the opportunity to attend this unique performance, at the Baron's Court Theatre, at the special group offer of 20% off full-price tickets for groups of 10 or more. Alternatively, individual members are offered the opportunity to see the production at the preferential rate of £10 per ticket. As a historical note M R James was a fan of P G Wodehouse. Brian Johnston, the writer and broadcaster (who was at Eton from 1925-31), recalled having supper with M R James and MRJ reading P G Wodehouse aloud at the supper table. If members would like to take advantage of this offer please quote "P G Wodehouse Society" when making a booking. Details: Heroes with receding chins For an amusing article on fictional heroes with receding chins please take a look at Tom Whipple's "Is Bertie Wooster the only fish-faced hero?" on Times Online (click here to view). The article includes some humorous observations on Wooster from PG Wodehouse himself! |
