QA121-130

Round 121 - 26 May 2002

1. This was Bertie Wooster choosing an appropriate costume to perform pastoral dances in the park shortly before bumping into young Bingo Little, looking perfectly foul in a crimson satin tie decorated with horseshoes. From "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum", which is collected in The Inimitable Jeeves, although the story also appears under the title "Jeeves in the Springtime" in most of the Omnibus volumes.

2. Psmith, after being summoned out of bed in the small hours to deal with a Mad Flower-Pot Hurling Fiend in the shape of Rupert Baxter (X), still made sure he was properly dressed for the interview at hand. From Chapter Eleven (sub-titled "Almost Entirely About Flower-Pots") of Leave it to Psmith. Psmith must have felt a good deal of satisfaction when he pinned that white rose to his pyjama lapel because a few chapters earlier he had been compelled to appear in public with a pink chrysanthemum in his button-hole.

3. Lady Chloe Downblotton, (B), and Cedric Mulliner, (C), were horrified by the bright yellow shoes worn by Lady Chloe's fiancé Claude, (A). Before many more paragraphs had passed Cedric would become even more horrified as Lady Chloe demanded that he exchange shoes with Claude. From "The Story of Cedric", which is collected in Mr Mulliner Speaking. Rummy that yellow shoes were considered a très chic fashion statement when an egg did pastoral dances in the park while a pair of equally yellow shoes was denounced as a hideous fashion faux pas when a bean went for a simple perambulation in the self-same park. I mean to say, with in-and-out running like that, what's a crumpet to do when trying to select suitable foot-joy before sauntering out for an afternoon of dog-walking, duck-feeding or soapbox rabble-rousing in the park? One might just as well don a pair of muddy tennis shoes and be done with it. But I digress. On to Answer #4.

4. The morals of (Y), Major Christopher Selby, Jill Mariner's Uncle Chris, may have left a good deal to be desired, but it was impossible to find fault with the old reprobate's appearance. From Chapter Six (sub-titled "Uncle Chris Bangs the Table") of Jill the Reckless (US title The Little Warrior).

Round 122 - 2 June 2002

1. The lady was Aunt Agatha's friend, Lady Malvern, coming to call on Bertie Wooster in New York with her son Motty, Lord Pershore, in tow. From "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest", which is collected in My Man Jeeves and later, slightly re-written, in Carry On, Jeeves.

2. This was Veronica Wedge, that lovely but bone-headed blonde who had the good fortune to be engaged to Tipton Plimsoll, an American millionaire who was never happier than when showering her with the jewels she coveted. Chapter Seven of Galahad at Blandings (US The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood).

3. The lady was, of course, Miss Postlethwaite, the courteous and efficient, albeit emotional, barmaid at the Anglers' Rest where the sight of her heaving, satin-clad b. may well have distracted some of the regulars from the story of "The Fiery Wooing of Mordred" from Young Men in Spats, which was about to be related by Mr. Mulliner.

4. This was our first look at the immensely wealthy Mrs Rosalinda Spottsworth, whose presence in the coffee room of the Goose and Gherkin raised the tone of the place unbelievably. From Chapter Five of Ring For Jeeves (US The Return of Jeeves).

5. After falling in love with her at first sight, Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps made a poor first impression on Dinty Moore by setting her hat on fire with a carelessly discarded cigar. Barmy quickly made amends by offering to buy Dinty the hat of her dreams as a replacement. From Chapter Four of Barmy in Wonderland (US Angel Cake).

Round 123 - 10 June 2002

Artists We Have Known

1. Bertie Wooster’s artistic New York friend Bruce "Corky" Corcoran, X, would shortly lose his fiancée, his allowance and his inheritance but strike it rich by turning his portrait of his infant cousin into a hit comic strip, The Adventures of Baby Blobbs. From "The Artistic Career of Corky", which is collected in My Man Jeeves and later in Carry On, Jeeves.

2. After getting the push for bungling his commission to paint the portrait of the Empress of Blandings, artist William Galahad "Blister" Lister and Freddie Threepwood conducted a post-mortem at the Emsworth Arms and reluctantly came to the conclusion that for once in his life Lord Emsworth had displayed a good deal of common sense by dispensing with the artist’s services, such as they were. From Chapter Five of Full Moon.

3. Temporarily in a glutinously sentimental mood as he went through the roller-coaster of emotions that go hand-in-hand with a man’s attempt to give up smoking, rising young portrait painter Ignatius Mulliner, (Z), was about to make the great sacrifice of offering to paint the portrait of his beloved Hermoine Rossiter, (Y), on the nod. Fortunately for the health of his bank account Ignatius was in a much different mood when Hermoine actually showed up for her first sitting. From "The Man Who Gave Up Smoking", which is collected in Mr Mulliner Speaking.

4. Rising young artist Lancelot Bingley, commissioned by his fiancée, the poet Gladys Wetherby, to paint the portrait of her uncle and trustee, Colonel Francis Pashley-Drake, wondered if his avant garde painting style was ideally suited to give satisfaction as a painter of portraits. Gladys reassured Lancelot by reminding him that her Uncle Francis was a retired explorer and "all explorers have weak eyes through staring at the sunrise on the Lower Zambesi". Their adventure is described in "A Good Cigar Is a Smoke" from Plum Pie.

Round 124 - 19 June 2002

1. This was, of course, the powerful young Canadian poet Ralston McTodd ("Plumbs the depths of human emotion and strikes a new note" - Montreal Star), the celebrated author of Songs of Squalor, whose presence, or perhaps I should say absence, is important to the plot of Leave it to Psmith despite the fact that he makes only one brief appearance in Chapter Six of the novel.

2. This was Sam Shotter, the title character of Sam the Sudden (US title Sam in the Suburbs), explaining to his pal Hash Todhunter in Chapter One how he came to fall in love with a girl he had never seen. For the bonus point, big game hunter and world traveller Hammond Chester, father of New York socialite Ann Chester, was on a bass-fishing trip in British Columbia when he met "Lord Wisbeach" and provided him with a letter of introduction to his New York family, unaware that his new friend was really a notorious gangster known to his colleagues in Burke’s Gang as Gentleman Jack. (Piccadilly Jim, Chapter One)

3. Ukridge was understandably bitter when his hopes of earning a large commission for finding an English country house for his old Canadian pal Hank Philbrick were dashed when his nouveau riche friend came to the conclusion that the dry Egyptian climate was better suited to his fragile health. And, let's face it, your health would be fragile, too, if you'd spent the evening downing five or six tankards of mixed benedictine, chartreuse, kummel, crème de menthe and old brandy after, of course, stoking up on the preliminary champagne and burgundy. From Ukridge Sees Her Through, which is collected in Ukridge (US title He Rather Enjoyed It).

4. Jas. Waterbury's plan to extract a large financial settlement from Bertie Wooster to avoid the embarrassment of a breach-of-promise lawsuit on behalf of his niece Trixie came unstuck thanks to the efforts of Jeeves and Aunt Dahlia, who managed to convince the greasiest of birds that the Young Master was penniless, head over heels in debt, and about to embark for Canada where he would be starting a new life with the meagre assistance of a starvation allowance from home. From Jeeves and the Greasy Bird, which is collected in Plum Pie.

Round 125 - 1 July 2002

1. This is red-haired Billie Bennett (Y) talking to Sir Mallaby Marlowe's respectable clerk, John (Jno.) Peters (X), in The Girl on the Boat (Three Men and a Maid), Chapter 13.

Sam Marlowe has engineered the confused situation by telling Billie that Peters is a dangerous lunatic and has tried to kill a Miss Milliken who deceived him by marrying a man from Ealing West, while having persuaded Peters (who has bought a gun in preparation for a business trip to the US) that the lady in his office is Miss Milliken, who is very interested in guns ...

2. Ukridge, in "The Come-Back of Battling Billson", in Lord Emsworth and Others, is trying to raise funds by renting out his aunt's garden on Wimbledon Common (not quite the same thing as Wimbledon, but I allowed both) to the Morris Men. "A" is the narrator, Corky.

3. This unartistic quarter is the abode of Phyllis Jackson and her dull cricket-playing husband Mike after their banishment from the Smith estate. Leave it to Psmith, Chapter 2, Section 1.

4. The alcoholic Judson Coker (B), late of New York's East 61st Street, has been exiled to the wastes of South London under the tutelage of Bill West. Bill is keeping him firmly penniless, but Judson has managed to obtain some cash by pawning Bill's gold pencil. He is about to discover the vagaries of English pub opening hours. Bill the Conqueror, Chapter 4, Section 1.

Round 126 - 10 July 2002

1. The young man (Y) is Freddie Bullivant, and his friends (X) are of course the mosquitoes ("Fixing it for Freddie" in Carry On, Jeeves). However, Wodehouse had previously used almost the same passage in the Reggie Pepper story "Helping Freddie"/"Lines and Business". There were some minor editorial changes between the two versions, the most striking of which was that Freddie Meadowes (Y) encounters gnats (X), not mosquitoes. I don't know which version has a firmer entomological base ...

2. This description of the village of Belpher (P) comes from Chapter 7 of A Damsel in Distress. The young man this time is George Bevan. Norman Murphy has pointed out how closely this description corresponds to the real village of Emsworth in Hampshire.

3. Frederick Mulliner (Q) is on his way, most reluctantly, to take tea with his old nanny in Bingley-on-Sea. He little knows what awaits him in the cupboard under the stairs ... ("Portrait of a Disciplinarian," Meet Mr Mulliner)

4. Yet another Freddie, I'm afraid: this is Freddie Widgeon (R) entertaining young Algernon Aubrey Little, son of Bingo (S). ("Bramley is so Bracing" Eggs, Beans and Crumpets / Nothing Serious)

Round 127 - 18 July 2002

1. A___ is Mrs Pett (Piccadilly Jim). She is engaging the fearsome Miss Trimble as a detective to keep an eye on several dubious characters she has been obliged to accept into her home (Jimmy Crocker and Algernon Bayliss, who are posing as each other, and Jimmy's father, posing as a butler, if I remember rightly).

2. This is of course the awful Sunday supper party at Mr Waller's house in Psmith in the City. Waller's appalling son, Master Edward Waller, is trying to tell us that "In Australia they've got Women's Suffrage already". C__ is Psmith, and B__ Mr Richards, estranged fiancé of Ada Waller.

3. The man on the receiving end of this tirade is Bill Bannister, who is not the drone that Sally thinks him on first acquaintance. This speech comes from the short novel Doctor Sally, and is also present in the US version, the short story "The Medicine Girl". Ian very kindly checked the text of the play Good Morning Bill, on which both are based, and found that it occurs there too in only slightly different form. Not surprisingly, then, almost everyone recognised these lines!

4. Bertie Wooster (of course) has been out canvassing for his friend Ginger Winship in the Market Snodsbury by-election. By accident or design, his first (and last) victim was none other than Ginger's opponent in the election, Mrs McCorkadale (Much Obliged Jeeves/Jeeves and the Tie that Binds, Ch.9).

Round 128 - 27 July 2002

1. Psmith (A), escaping from Lord Emsworth's snoring in another compartment, was reading Ralston McTodd's "Songs of Squalor" when interrupted by the sound of the Hon. Frederick Threepwood's snores from the corner of their carriage on the Paddington-Market Blandings train. (Freddie has a handkerchief over his face, so Psmith has not identified him.) Chapter VII of Leave it to Psmith.

2. Archibald Mulliner (B)'s disturbed sleep was not, as he feared, the result of the snoring of his adored Aurelia Cammarleigh, but of Aurelia's bulldog, Lysander. Archie had been planning to stuff a cake of soap down the blighter's throat but Muriel enters just in time, suggesting that Aurelia put a green-baize cloth over her snoring pooch. "The Reverent Wooing of Archibald", from Mr Mulliner Speaking.

3. This is Soup Slattery explaining to his business associate Gordon Carlisle how he came to be sitting on the window-sill of the bedroom in Chateau Blissac occupied by Senator Opal. The Senator's pyjamas were orange - a fact only of interest if you happen to remember Baxter's famous lemon-coloured ones. Chapter 11 of Hot Water.

4. As he looked forward to puncturing the hot-water bottle of young Hildebrand "Tuppy" Glossop (at the suggestion of Roberta Wickham), Bertie Wooster (bearing not a trifle, but a darning needle on a stick) was encouraged by his intended victim's snoring, unaware that Tuppy had earlier swapped bedrooms with his irascible uncle, Sir Roderick Glossop. "Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit", from Very Good, Jeeves.

Round 129 - 15 August 2002

1. Lord Emsworth is reminded by this song of the pig call James Belford had taught him, which he promptly (and characteristically) forgot. ("Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey!," Blandings Castle. Lyricist: Oscar Hammerstein II, from the 1925 Jerome Kern musical Sunny.)

2. Miss Roxborough, also known as Mrs Jack Tyson, at Geisenheimer's. ("At Geisenheimer's," The Man With Two Left Feet. Lyricist: Irving Berlin.)

3. "Bill" is Wilhelmina Shannon, and the butler is Phipps. (The Old Reliable, Chapter 9. Lyricist: Ira Gershwin. This couplet is also quoted in Wodehouse and Bolton's Bring on the Girls, Chapter 14 in the UK edition or Chapter 15 in the US edition -- or rather misquoted. Herbert Hoover (US President from 1929-1933) had proclaimed "Prosperity is just around the corner" when the Depression had years to go, but Gershwin's version is "Posterity is just around the corner." The singer, President Wintergreen in the 1931 musical Of Thee I Sing, has just learned that his wife is expecting.)

4. D = the Angler's Rest. ("The Knightly Quest of Mervyn," Mulliner Nights. The lyricist of this 1917 song from Leave it to Jane is one P.G. Wodehouse.)

Round 130 - 23 August 2002

1. Claude (Mustard) Pott, shaken from encountering the Empress in the Duke of Dunstable's bathroom (he had once been bitten by a pig), has tried to restore himself with a glass of brandy. Unfortunately, Lord Ickenham has put a Mickey Finn (intended for the Duke) in the glass. (Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Chapter 19)

2. Bertie has thrown a sheet over Roderick Spode (alias Eulalie). (The Code of the Woosters, Chapter 7)

3. F is John Maude, who is about to be restored to the throne (temporarily) as Prince of Mervo. (The Prince and Betty, UK edition, Chapter 4)

4. Mrs Lorna Delane Porter. (The Coming of Bill, US title Their Mutual Child, Chapter 1)