1. In Chapter 17 of Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (US: The Catnappers) the incarcerated Bertie Wooster was giving serious consideration to enlisting the aid of one of the local rats to engineer his escape.

2. Even a future that might involve picking oakum at Wormwood Scrubs and making friends with pet rats was, in the opinion of Psmith, (A), preferable to his past life as a Billingsgate fish-monger. From Chapter 7 of Leave it to Psmith.

3. In Chapter Four of If I Were You squirrels and motor-cars helped bring Lord Droitwich and Polly Brown together for the first time.

4. In Chapter 4 of Service With a Smile young George Threepwood, (C), provided his new friend the Duke of Dunstable with the latest stop-press news about his grandfather’s eccentricities.

5. No trip to South America is complete without an expedition up the Orinoco River, the setting for Bella Mae Jobson’s children’s novel Charlie Chipmunk Up the Orinoco. From the short story “The Editor Regrets”, first collected in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets.

6. We learn in Chapter 28 of Sam the Sudden (US: Sam in the Suburbs) that Mr Edwin Phillimore of The Firs at the corner of Buller Street and Myrtle Avenue in Valley Fields had the misfortune to be bitten by a guinea-pig the previous summer. The Valley Fields historian Mr Cornelius repeated the anecdote in Chapter 25 of (The) Ice in the Bedroom.

Round 412 - 9 October 2009

1. The Oldest Member, (A), looked on with approval as Cyril Jukes, (B), completed his round in a November blizzard at the beginning of the story "Feet of Clay”, collected in Nothing Serious.

2. The climax of the short story “Jeeves and the Old School Chum” from Very Good, Jeeves took place on a brisk fall day that left Bertie Wooster and all the other characters looking forward with eager anticipation to a hearty tea.

3. The Autumn engagement of Freddie Threepwood and Aline Peters (D and C) was about to be broken off by Aline’s sudden elopement with George Emerson, (E). From Chapter 10 of Something Fresh (Chapter 11 of the US book Something New with slightly different punctuation, sentence structure and paragraph breaks than the excerpt quoted from the British book).

4. The evidence presented in Chapter One of The Girl in Blue seemed to indicate that Mrs Bernadette Clayborne had inherited the family shoplifting gene from her deceased Aunt Betsy, (F), whose career had come to an abrupt end at the Autumn sales some years earlier.

5. In Chapter 11 of The Adventures of Sally (US: Mostly Sally) Ginger Kemp, (H), was looking forward to enjoying the balmy New York Indian Summer weather by taking Sally Nicholas, (G), for a day out in a motor-car. Unfortunately, complications were in the offing.

6. Autumn Leaves was among the works penned by Miss Gwendolen Moon. From “The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy”, first collected in Very Good, Jeeves.

Round 413 - 19 October 2009

1. Bertie Wooster suggests that Gussie Fink-Nottle, while wooing Madeline Bassett, should use a neat quotation provided by Jeeves (A) [Right Ho, Jeeves, ch. 9].

2. This is Galahad Threepwood quoting his old friend Buffy Struggles [Galahad at Blandings, ch. 8].

3. Syd Price/Droitwich (D) is not looking forward to riding again, but Sir Herbert Bassinger (C) thinks he should have respect for the name of Droitwich (B) [If I Were You, ch. 15].

4. Madeline Bassett consoles Bertie Wooster on his broken heart [Much Obliged, Jeeves, ch. 7].

Bonus: Elsa Keith ["The Good Angel", from The Man Upstairs], Bingo Little [The Code of the Woosters, ch. 3], Stilton Cheesewright [Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, ch. 10] and Gussie Fink-Nottle [Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, ch. 13].

Round 414 - 27 October 2009

1. James Rodman (A) is drawing closer and closer to the fate worse than death ["Honeysuckle Cottage", from Meet Mr Mulliner].

2. Mortimer Sturgis is looking forward to presenting his fiancée to confirmed bachelor Eddie Denton (B) ["A Mixed Threesome", from The Clicking of Cuthbert].

3. Lord Blicester (C), who had come dangerously close to marrying Leila Yorke (D), is pained to be apprised of the engagement of his nephew Freddie Widgeon (E) [Ice in the Bedroom, ch. 19].

4. The self-indulgent bachelor, about to leave for Blandings Castle (G), is Sir Gregory Parsloe (F) [Heavy Weather, ch. 6].

5. Mortimer Bayliss (J) wonders at the behaviour of Bill Hollister (H) [Something Fishy, ch. 26].

Round 415 - 5 November 2009

1. Jeeves (A) does not approve of Bertie's Old Etonian spats ["The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace", from The Inimitable Jeeves].

2. Theodore P Brinkmeyer is telling Lord Havershot what his sister Beulah wants him to wear [Laughing Gas, ch. 12].

3. Lord Ickenham (B) and his nephew Pongo Twistleton (D) discuss, among other things, the chances of Jujube (C) in the Goodwood Cup [Uncle Dynamite, ch. 2].

4. Archibald Mulliner (E) was seriously let down by his man Meadowes (F) ["The Reverent Wooing of Archibald", from Mr Mulliner Speaking].

Bonus: Cedric Mulliner ["The Story of Cedric", from Mr Mulliner Speaking].

Round 416 - 15 November 2009

1. Major Plank (A) finishes Sir Aylmer Bostock's strawberries [Uncle Dynamite, ch. 14].

2. Joss Weatherby orders a drink for James Duff (B) as they discuss their conspiracy tactics [Quick Service, ch. 13].

3. After learning that Jane Packard has got engaged to a poet, a shocked William Bates (C) sits down on a basket of strawberries ["Rodney Fails to Qualify", from The Heart of a Goof].

4. Ephraim Trout (D) tells Joe Pickering (F) about the culinary qualities of Mrs Amelia Bingham (E) [Bachelors Anonymous, ch. 11].

Round 417 - 25 November 2009

1. Berry Conway (Big Money, ch. 1)

2. Oily Carlisle (A) (Cocktail Time, ch. 8)

3. Sir Jasper Addleton (B) and Adrian Mulliner (C) in the story “The Smile That Wins"

4. This is Corky Corcoran talking to Bertie (D) and rushing to Park Row in "The Artistic Career of Corky"

Bonus A: Joe Brice in an anecdote related by the Hon. Galahad Threepwood in Chapter 12 of Galahad at Blandings

Bonus B: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse himself in a letter to daughter Leonora dated Sep. 27, 1920 and reproduced in Yours, Plum

Round 418 - 7 December 2009

1. The Hon. Galahad Threepwood in Ch. 7 Galahad at Blandings

2. Bill Hollister in Ch. 15 of Something Fishy

3. Clarence, Ninth Earl of Emsworth, Galahad at Blandings

4. Bobbie Cardew in the Reggie Pepper story "Absent Treatment"

5. PC Eustace Oates in The Code of the Woosters

6. His Grace, the Sixth Duke of Dunstable in conversation with young George in Ch. 7 of Service With a Smile

7. Sergeant EB Murchison in Ch. 1 of Sunset at Blandings

8. Scott in the story "Pillingshot, Detective"

Bonus: THE CODES of the Woosters, Mulliners
Widgeons ("The Masked Troubadour")
Mumfords ("Reggie and the Greasy Bird" in the Saturday Evening Post)
Maufringneuses (mentioned in Chapter 11 of French Leave)
and possibly the Catsmeats (mentioned in The Mating Season in regard to opening of others' mail)

Round 419 - 15 December 2009

1. Bertie Wooster (B) describes Adela Cream (A), who had returned from Birmingham; Jeeves in the Offing ch. 20

2. Police-constable Edward Plimmer reflecting on things in Battersea Park Road in the story 'The Romance of an Ugly Policeman'

3. After the morning spent with Eve Halliday (D) and Freddie Threepwood (E) Psmith (F) decides to lunch at the Senior Conservative Club; Leave it to Psmith ch. 6, 3

4. Bertie Wooster is telling Jeeves (H) about the trials of Oliver "Sippy" Sipperley (G) in the story 'Without the Option'

5. Young Herman von Bellow in the song 'Yip-i-addy' (lyrics by Will D. Cobb) which inspired Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse to write The Rose of China, mentioned in Bring on the Girls ch 6

6. The schnirkel-schnecke gatherer is Hans (or Fritz or Wilhelm as the case may be). His unnamed Austrian father composed imitation Strauss waltzes, From Over Seventy ch. 9 and in the Jan. 19, 1955 edition of Punch.

7. The verse is taken from 'You're the Top' in Anything Goes, sung by Billy Crocker and Reno Sweeney.

Round 420 - 27 December 2009

The poet Rockmeteller Todd of the story 'The Aunt and the Sluggard' had an aunt in Illinois and Bertie estimated his pal Rocky worked at writing poems 3 days each month or 36 days a year. Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps estimated the age of the second cousin of Angelica Briscoe to be 28 in 'Tried in the Furnace'.

A = 36 - 28 = 8

Bertie Wooster paid out to Jas Waterbury only 15 pounds, and avoided playing Santa Claus and also marrying Trixie Waterbury in 'Jeeves and the Greasy Bird'. Trixie's weight he estimates at 160 pounds.

X = 15
C = 160

Mabel Somerset had to walk 8 miles from the station and both she and her husband Mortimer Sturgis have a golf handicap of 24 strokes, per the story 'Sundered Hearts'.

D = 8
E = 24

C - E - A - D - (X x A) = 160 - 24 - 8 - 8 - 120 = 0

The multiple choice answers are:

1. Oofy Prosser gives Bingo Little 50 pounds in 'Sonny Boy'

2. Gussie Fink-Nottle was sick twice in the cab, as he recalls in Right Ho, Jeeves ch. 2

3. Bingo Little observes that he is down to zero in his uncle Lord Bittleham's estimation in 'Comrade Bingo'

So the answer is Zero or option #3.

Bonus A: Yaks' tails are used for making beards for department-store Santa Clauses. Over Seventy ch. 19 or Punch, Jan. 12, 1955

Bonus B: The first rule is to select something shiny. 'Happy Christmas and Merry New Year' in Louder and Funnier or the Dec 1915 Vanity Fair column written by PGW under the name P Brooke-Haven.