QA61-70

Round 61 - 3 October 2000

1. Of course, the unfortunate Bertie, who has been mistaken for a doctor while venturing into darkest East Dulwich, in "Indian Summer of an Uncle" (Very Good, Jeeves). He is attempting to bribe Rhoda Platt from marrying his uncle, but Jeeves' machinations lead to wedding bells for her even more objectionable aunt.

2. Tipton Plimsoll is taking his spots to the ministrations of E Jimpson Murgatroyd, who warns him of the dire consequences of his alcohol intake. While Tipton is not too impressed on this visit, in another book he recommends him to Bertie, when Bertie is also plagued by spots. Full Moon, Chap 3.

3. Star patient, Joe Boffin, as interviewed in the Christmas number of The Lancet, impresses Sir Aylmer Bastable. "Romance at Droightgate Spa" (Eggs, Beans and Crumpets).

4. The unspeakable Doctor Sally in Chapter one of the book of that name.

Round 62 - 12 October 2000

1. Of course, Lord Emsworth, in "Company for Gertrude" (Blandings Castle as well as other anthologies). Gertrude's fiance, Rupert Bingham, is the current imposter at Blandings Castle, which has imposters like other houses have mice. He attempts to ingratiate himself to Lord Emsworth to such poor effect that the Earl provides him with a vicarage next to his worst enemy, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe.

2. That modern day Othello, Ronnie Fish in Heavy Weather, overcomes his jealousy and ministers to a wet Monty Bodkin. To his horror, he discovers "Sue" tattooed on Monty's chest. Monty stoutly maintains it refers to the unfortunate Sarah Ursula Ebbsmith, who perished with pneumonia. Ronnie, however, suspects otherwise and the green eyed monster rears its ugly head ...

3. Wilfred Mulliner, the brilliant scientist, invented Raven Gipsy Face-Cream, designed to prevent sunburn fading. He gives it to his fiancee, Angela Purdue, with unfortunate results. However, all turns out well when she is cured by Snow of the Mountains Lotion. They go on to have two children - the small, or Percival, at a preparatory school in Sussex, and the large, or Ferdinand, at Eton. This story also includes the ffiendish Sir Jasper ffinch-ffinch.

Round 63 - 21 October 2000

1. Bill Lister, disguised in the beard that made Fruity Biffen look like an Assyrian monarch, terrorises Veronica Wedge. He then tries to pass his note to Lady Hermione Wedge in the mistaken belief that she is the castle cook. Full Moon, chapter 6.

2. Lord Biskerton is trialling a false beard of imperial cut in an attempt to foil his creditors. He will later undergo a painful scene where his beard is ripped off by a barmaid, causing her to fall into a swoon. Big Money, chapter 4.

3. Henry Pifield Rice, detective, is following a touring theatre company. He believes himself to be completely anonymous, but the actors are placing bets as to who he is trailing. He is later adopted by the company as a mascot and marries the girl of his dreams. "Bill the Bloodhound", from The Man with Two Left Feet.

Round 64 - 29 October 2000

1. Angela Travers undergoes this terrifying experience in Cannes. Tuppy Glossop then denigrates the fishy denizen as a mere flatfish, and Angela quite properly parts brass rags with him. She then remarks on Tuppy's tummy, which causes a rift that only Jeeves can solve. Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 7.

2. Sally Nicholas is sitting on the beach at Rolville-sur-Mer. Ginger Kemp is just about to embarrass himself by commenting loudly on her looks, assuming she can't speak English. The Adventures of Sally, chapter 2.

3. Jeremy Garnet behaves in a positively Ukridgean way by arranging for Professor Derrick to have his boat upset. The ffiendish plan is that Jeremy will rescue the Professor and further his amatory plans. Love Among the Chickens, chapter 11.

Round 65 - 11 November 2000

1. Psmith, in search of employment in a fish-free environment, registers at Miss Clarkson's Employment Bureau. (Leave it to Psmith, Chapter 5)

2. Ronnie Fish (X), discovering Sue Brown sharing a table with P. Frobisher Pilbeam at Mario's Restaurant, reaches the condition of mind which the old Vikings used to call Berserk and which among modern Malays is termed running amok. (Chapter 4, Summer Lightning, a.k.a. Fish Preferred)

3. Lord Rowcester (known as Lord Towcester is U.S. editions of the book) is reminded by Jeeves how he (his Lordship) came to embark on a career as a Silver Ring bookie operating the under the name of Honest Patch Perkins from Chapter 4 of Ring for Jeeves (U.S. title The Return of Jeeves)

4. In the final paragraph of Love Among the Chickens (Chapter 23), S. F. Ukridge, his chicken farm having gone bust, foresees a prosperous future as the proprietor of a duck farm as he walks into the sunset with Jeremy Garnet.

Round 66 - 20 November 2000

1. Old Mr Anstruther was drenched when young Thos., armed with a bucket of water, failed to hit his intended target, little Sebastian Moon. As a result of the pie-faced thug's faulty aim young Bonzo Travers won Mr Anstruther's Good Conduct competition and Aunt Dahlia won her bet with the Snettisham, retaining Anatole's services and gaining a kitchen-maid in the bargain. ("The Love That Purifies" from Very Good, Jeeves)

2. The diseased mind of Hollywood public relations agent George Pybus dismayed Montrose Mulliner by coming up with the suggestion that he (Montrose) and his beloved Rosalie Beamish say their wedding vows in a gorilla's cage, with the gorilla in close attendance. ("Monkey Business" from Blandings Castle and Elsewhere)

3. Myra Jennings (Miss), discovered lugging a whacking great suitcase through the streets of New York, received a helping hand from Freddie Widgeon with disastrous consequences for the chivalrous Drone. ("Fate" from Young Men in Spats)

4. The Reverend Alistair Pond-Pond, vicar of the parish of Rudge-in-the-Vale, came up with this happy turn of phrase to defuse the tension between the aristocratic householders of Riverside Row and the humbler dwellers of Budd Street arising, if you remember, from the practice of the latter of washing their more intimate articles of underclothing and hanging them to dry in back-gardens into which their exclusive neighbours were compelled to gaze every time they looked out of the window (Chapter Five of Money for Nothing)

Round 67 - 28 November 2000

1. Bertie Wooster, asked to canvass on behalf of Tory candidate Harold "Ginger" Winship (W) in the Market Snodsbury by-election, and despite having his line of patter supplied by Jeeves (X), came a cropper when the first door he knocked on was that of Ginger's Labour opponent, Mrs McCorkadale. (Much Obliged Jeeves, a.k.a. Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, Chapter Eight)

2. Sir Raymond "Beefy" Bastable (Y), all eager to denounce Modern Youth after having his top hat knocked off by a catapult-propelled Brazil nut, was urged against writing a strong letter to The Times by his brother-in-law, Lord Ickenham. As an alternative Beefy unburdened his tortured soul by writing the frank and fearless novel "Cocktail Time" under the pen-name of Richard Blunt. (Cocktail Time, Chapter Two)

3. John Bickersdyke, London branch manager of the New Asiatic Bank and Unionist candidate for Kenningford, was looking forward to a Town Hall political meeting with mixed feelings, afraid of being heckled by the proletariat. As it turned out, the lion's share of the heckling was done by one of his junior employees at the bank, a certain Mr R. E. Psmith. (Psmith in the City, Chapter Ten)

4. Cosy Moments proprietor Psmith provided his views on New York civic politics to tenement owner and would-be Alderman Stewart Waring in the penultimate chapter (Ch 29) of Psmith, Journalist.

Round 68 - 5 December 2000

1. The Efficient Baxter (B), after failing to medal in the Hunt-the-Necklace event and finding himself locked out of Blandings Castle at four in the morning clad only in lemon-coloured pyjamas, began training for the Flower Pot Toss at the next Olympic Games, waking his employer, Lord Emsworth, in the process (Leave it to Psmith, Chapter 11)

2. Faced with the problem of how to dispose of a plateful of Ma Balsalm's inedible rock cakes, Jeff Miller (E) flung the contents across the courtyard into what he mistakenly supposed was an empty office with the result that the final missile struck Chimp Twist (D) about two inches north of his revolting waxed moustache. (Money in the Bank, Chapter 5)

3. The wedding photograph of X, Teddy Weeks, was spoiled when a 'dishevelled man', bribed by a shilling from Ukridge, hit the groom between the eyes with a shrewdly aimed tomato. ("Ukridge's Accident Syndicate" from Ukridge (UK) and (US) He Rather Enjoyed It)

4. Bertie Wooster was the recipient of a package of Bailey's Granulated Breakfast Chips dropped out of an upper window by Mr Kegworthy, the father of Tootles and Bootles, in "Fixing it for Freddie" from Carry On, Jeeves! Extra points were available (but not taken) if anyone had provided Reggie Pepper and Mr Medwin as alternative answers as bombee and bomber, respectively. An almost identical passage originally appeared in the early Reggie Pepper story "Helping Freddie", a.k.a. "Lines and Business", which was later re-written as a vehicle for Bertie and Jeeves.

Round 69 - 15 December 2000

1. Lord Emsworth had this royal nightmare because of his anxiety (after McAllister had gone) about his beloved pumpkin's welfare ("The Custody of the Pumpkin", in Blandings Castle and Elsewhere).

2. Percy Wimbolt (the Drone with a head like a water-melon) was similarly anxious about his new hat (from Bodmin's, of course)."The Amazing Hat Mystery", in Young Men in Spats.

3. Here the dreamer was Mr Gedge – J. Wellington Gedge, a homesick American from Glendale, California, who was residing in St Rocque, France, at the time. From Z's rudeness it was to be inferred that this uncouth character was oatmeal-jerking Senator Opal, the human snapping turtle.

As dream expert Kristine Fowler pointed out, the skeleton in Mr Gedge's subconscious mind must have slipped into that murky place when the Vicomte de Blissac called him "Mr Skeleton Gedge" (ch. 4.)

Hot Water, ch. 11, section 3.

4. This unfortunate betting addict – who repeatedly put his trust in dreams and omens (with consistently disastrous results) – was, of course, Bingo Little.

Kristine Fowler's brilliant detective work led her unerringly to the source: ‘a very late story (Bingo Bans the Bomb ...), what with the progressive references to bikinis and the Twist (earlier it would have been "doing the rock and roll in her step-ins")’. Then she wondered about Bingo's financial straits: ‘but Bingo had inherited his money by then, so I can't account for this return of his youthful disasters ...’ Well, your Quizmistress does not know the answer either. Bingo did inherit pots of money when his Uncle Wilberforce at last handed in his dinner-pail ("Jeeves and the Old School Chum"), which should have kept the wolf from the vestibule; but later, apparently, Bingo went on working (if ‘working’ is the word I want) for a pittance as Wee Tots editor. Could he have lost everything on the race-course? Or did Rosie insist on a joint account? The thing seems to be one of the great historic mysteries, ranking with the Man in the Iron Mask and the case of the Marie Celeste.

Two contestants pointed out that this ‘merry widow’ dream of Bingo's bears some resemblance to the well-known ‘dancing uncle’ dream in "All's Well with Bingo". They were quite right. As a matter of fact, your Quizmistress considered both passages when setting the question and wavered for some time. But Aunt Myrtle did retain some clothing, however tiny, while Uncle Wilberforce threw all restraint to the winds and actually danced the rumba in the nude. So, this being a family quiz, Aunt Myrtle's comparative modesty won out in the end.

"Bingo Bans the Bomb", in Plum Pie.

Round 70 - 23 December 2000

1. Willie Cream – Wilbert, of course, not Wilfred! – was trying to eject Bertie Wooster (W, narrator) from the leafy glade in which he, Willie, was having a poetry reading tête-à-tête with Phyllis Mills. Bertram felt aggrieved, understandably so, as the l. g. in question was located in the grounds of Brinkley Court, his Aunt Dahlia's country house. Jeeves in the Offing, ch. 3 [or How Right you are, Jeeves].

Similar wording (about similar circumstances) can be found elsewhere: ‘This place is related to me by ties of blood’ (Joy in the Morning, ch. 17), ‘a summerhouse which was the property of my Aunt Dahlia and so related to me by ties of blood’ (Much Obliged, Jeeves, ch. 13). But the ‘leafy glade’ quotation is particularly delightful, I think, for two reasons. First, here Bertie is claiming to be related to the place (not the other way round). Then the whole passage, with its hilarious variations on the ‘leafy glade’ leitmotiv, is a masterpiece of humorous style.

2. Gally (the Hon. Galahad Threepwood), speaking to Lord Emsworth, was denouncing, as he often did, that Towser-nobbler, Parsloe (Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe) (X). Summer Lightning, ch. 3 (section 4). And, except for the very beginning, this spirited denunciation is reprinted word for word in Pigs Have Wings, ch. 2 (section 2).

In the famous preface the Master wrote for Summer Lightning, he alluded to a certain critic who had remarked about his last novel that it contained ‘all the old Wodehouse characters under different names’. Well, this time, Plum stated with a simple dignity that became him well, he had outgeneralled the man by putting in ‘all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names’.

Now, he went one step further in Pigs Have Wings: he put in an old Wodehouse character under the same name and saying precisely the same thing – Gally quoting himself! Here is the relevant passage (Gally speaking to the bad baronet): "(...) I remember saying to Clarence once, ‘Clarence,’ I said, ‘I have known young Parsloe for thirty years and I solemnly state that [etc.]’ (...)" – What critic could possibly hold out against such a master-stroke?

3. Edwin's surname (Y) – that of the little octopuses (or octopi) too, obviously – was Spiller. And the silver-tongued orator was of course the inimitable Psmith. Mike and Psmith, ch. 4 [or Mike, or Enter Psmith]

4. Mike was Mycroft Cardinal, his future wife was Lady Teresa (‘Terry’) Cobbold, and his future father-in-law Lord Shortlands (Claude Percival John Delamere Cobbold, the fifth Earl of Shortlands – ‘Shorty’ to his friends). Don't you love the Master's description of Whiskers as Mike's ‘future dog by marriage’? Spring Fever, ch. 12.