October
Saturday 6th (five days before the Convention). Our Chairman, Norman Murphy, married the President of The (American) Wodehouse Society, Elin Woodger. This was a "secret" until the party at The Anglers' Rest (see below) on Thursday evening.

Thursday 11th 5 pm. Historic Philadelphia Walking Tour. Guided by the excellent Philadelphians Gretchen Worden and Herb Moskovitz, a party of about 50 went round the beautiful seventeenth and eighteenth century brick houses, and stone public buildings, associated with Benjamin Franklin and others of the American War of Independence. Added contributions and questions from Norman Murphy.
9 pm onwards. The Convention Hotel main bar, the Wooden Nickel, became The Anglers' Rest, and Miss Postlethwaite, wearing one of the top hats with which all Conventioneers had been kitted out, served drinks from the Mulliner stories. After the announcement of the Woodger-Murphy merger, David Landman read a poem in their honour, and they were presented with a silver fish slice. Virtually nobody from the UK contingent had any suspicion, and to some it seemed like a hoax; part of the entertainment. But no, it is real, and they will both live in London. This is good news for us all (except for a few Newts), especially the UK Society. Quite a lot of the Americans had known the news for about a year, even though they were not supposed to. Many indeed had been rehearsing "surprise" to greet the official announcement.

Friday 12th 10.00 am and 3 pm. Tour of the Free Library of Philadelphia's Rare Book Department (led by John Graham).
11.30 am to 1.30 pm (including Lunch, alias Tea). Cricket Match at the Merion Cricket Club (click here for a report).
2.30 pm. Wodehouse and the Audio Tapes (discussion led by Dan Cohen).
2.30 pm. Wodehouse and the Musical Theatre (discussion led by Tony Ring).
4.30 pm. Meeting of The Clients of Adrian Mulliner (joint Wodehouse-Sherlockian society) led by Anne Cotton and Marilyn MacGregor.
2 pm to 6 pm Steggles's Delight: Games: Knock the Constable's Hat Off, Tiger Wodehouse Challenge Gowlf Course; Fat Uncle Sweepstake (=guess the weight of the pig, won by Gary Hall from Nebraska; but as his life is so close to pigs, nobody else had a chance).
6 pm. Cocktail Party, including

• a report on the afternoon's cricket by Tony Ring;
• homage to the Empress of Blandings, a talk with recordings by Gary and Linda Hall, largely about recent pig-calling competitions, and other hilarious events;
• an egg-and-spoon race, the egg in the spoon and the spoon held in the mouth, in three heats.

Saturday, 13th 9 am. Welcoming Remarks: President Elin Woodger (now Elin Murphy). Published in Philadelphia: Wodehouse and the Saturday Evening Post: talk by John Graham; Wodehouse at the (Legal) Bar: talk by Erik Quick (click here for this talk); Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge: Hidden Values and Frozen Assets: talk by Elliott Milstein; Wodehouse at the Seaside: Where is Bramley-on-Sea?: illustrated talk by Norman Murphy (click here for a report); The Great P G Wodehouse Quiz, or Weeding Out the Weakest Drone; results announced by Dave McDonough.
Adjournment for Lunch.
Business Meeting. Elin Murphy (née Woodger) had reached the end of her Presidential term. Susan Cohen was elected President and Jan Kaufman Vice President.
Writing Cheques at Intervals: the Life of a Wodehouse Publisher: talk by John Fletcher (click here for a report); Cow Creamers: a Trivial Obsession; illustrated talk by Gretchen Worden; P G Wodehouse and Hollywood: talk by Brian Taves; The Mirth of a Nation: a dramatic historical skit on how the United States was born in Philadelphia and nearby, by the Newts (New England Wodehouse Thingummy Society).
6.30 pm Cocktails
7.30 pm Banquet. Prizes including best Fancy Dress. Followed by dancing, and singing round the piano: music provided by Neil Midkiff.

For pictures, click here.

Report, by Jean Tillson

This is one person's report on the convention as a whole, which captures brilliantly the spirit of it, and some of the important events. It first appeared on the listserve PGWnet but she has permitted us to copy it here. "Pighooey" is her nom de Plum; "de Freece" is the nom de Plum of Murray Hedgcock; TWS is The (American) Wodehouse Society, and TWSCC is their cricket club.

Jean Tillson's Convention Coverage

Date: 16. Oct. 2001 3:25 am GMT Have only just arrived back in Massachusetts after a seven-hour drive on a total of 20 hours sleep, 18 bottles of champagne, 2 of red wine, and one very nice port (and that's just what we drank in our room) in the last 5 days. Lucky to be alive, really.... Gosh what a splendid convention! I can't do it justice in my present condition, but it can be said to have begun in earnest with Norman and Elin's announcement in the bar parlor of the Angler's Rest on the Thursday evening.

(Picture, with thanks to Jean Tillson)

Note: do not attempt to send Elin your best wishes and all that via e-mail - her computer died last week and she's leaving for England on Wednesday and will have to buy a new one once she gets there and settles in, so it will be a while before she'll have Internet access again. If any of you wish to send cards, though, I don't think the happy couple would mind my posting their snail mail address. It is: Elin and Norman Murphy, 9 Winton Ave., Bounds Green, London N11 2AS, United Kingdom.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes, Thursday night, wedding announcement. Well, there will no doubt be pictures of that posted on various websites soon (details to be provided as they become known), as well as a wonderful poem David Landman wrote for them which will turn up in Plum Lines in due course, I am sure.

Friday was the cricket match (lovely ground the Merion Cricket Club have, and it was the first time TWSCC has ever played on a regulation pitch). Now, here I would like to correct the impression Pongo may have left you with that I was a non-player. I started out as a non-player, it's true, due to some concern (on my part at least; nobody else seemed to care) that my Old Trick Knee was acting up (possibly it would be more accurate to say that nobody believed me, but in any case, that's why I started out as a non-player). However, as I told roving reporter Robert Bruce when he interviewed me later, I think our own dear de Freece must have said a special prayer to the gods of cricket for me that morning as, when I was eventually pressed into bowling, I miraculously (no one more surprised than myself, I assure you) not only managed to bowl the ball the entire length of the pitch (a thing I was certain I could not do), but was actually able to deliver my over in straight and true enough fashion to TAKE NEIL MIDKIFF'S WICKET! (I'm sorry, Neil, but this will never, never, happen again and I simply must be allowed to brag a bit. Nothing personal, I assure you. I would much rather have been allowed to take Gussie's wicket, but the gods ensure against too much happiness, don't you know.) Anyway, I have witnesses, so ignore the man with the green hair - he has a tendency to gibber after devastating losses on the playing field (I think the score was 70 runs to 36 or some horrible thing; I've no idea how many wickets fell. Two or three, anyway, but no doubt Robert will post his report telling all in more detail on the UK website soon.)

Friday afternoon we went to the Philadelphia Free Library where John Graham treated us to a display of "some" of his incredible Wodehouse collection. Wonderful stuff, an elegant library and an extremely friendly, knowledgeable curator who showed us 'round some of the library's own rare delights the highlight of which, for me, was the stuffed raven, Grip, who once was a pet (before he was stuffed) of Charles Dickens, and is said by some to have inspired Poe's famous poem!

After that we went back to the hotel and had a cocktail party. At this cocktail party Tony Ring presented, on de Freece's behalf, a copy of MCC Scores of Matches, etc., for 1905 to the TWSCC library (which is, thank God, a book shelf in my house). This book is, as you all no doubt know, the one listing (on page 18), the results of a famous Actors vs. Authors match in which Plum participated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, E. W. Hornung, C. Aubrey Smith, H. B. Warner, Gerald du Maurier, etc.. It is a stunningly generous and thoughtful gift which I do not hesitate to confess brought a not unwomanly tear to my eye and if I ever think of words adequate to convey my gratitude to and affection for the one and only Murray Hedgcock I shall write them down and send them to him.

Saturday was the day of the "talks", of course, each one more fascinating, enlightening, and amusing than the last. We NEWTS did our skit which seemed to be very well received (thanks awfully to everyone who said they liked it), then we all went off to dress for the banquet. I'm leaving out huge chunks of fun, but to some extent "you had to be there" and besides, I'm fast running out of steam. I seem to recall dancing with Norman Murphy and John Fletcher at some point, and there is an image stuck in my mind's eye of a large wardrobe topped by an endless array of champagne bottles... and then I seem to hear the voice of Kristine Fowler saying "It's nine minutes to seven." Oh, but then later on Sunday morning, at the brunch, the Blandings Castle chapter did a fabulous reading of Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend, during which more not unwomanly (and not unmanly, I couldn't help noticing) tears were shed. That bit where Gladys slips her moist little hand into Lord Emsworth's, thereby emboldening him to stand up to both Angus McAllister and Lady Constance, is, to my mind, the most touching in all of the canon.

Well, my dear old chaps and gels, I must needs seek my bed now. I encourage all who were at the convention to fill in the huge gaps of my tattered narrative, and I entreat all who were not there to mark their calendars for October 2003. It matters not where the next convention will be held; it will be just as much fun, so do try to make it.

Yours ever,

Pighooey