Quotations from P G Wodehouse are copyright of, and reprinted by permission of, the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate © 2012 The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

Society meeting at the Arts Club – 13th October 2009

by Tim Andrew

It would be no exaggeration to say that the room where we meet at the Arts Club was absolutely packed for our October meeting: sitting on the floor – if a space could be found – or standing in the doorway were the only options left for latecomers. Attendance is normally very good, but this good?

For seasoned attenders at our London meetings, this could have been puzzling: the October meeting features our AGM, which, although always a rollicking barrel of fun, hardly counts as the kind of draw to bring members flocking in the dozens we saw that night. Similarly, the speaker, whilst undoubtedly a good egg, as all Wodehouseans are by definition, had been revealed in advance as Stephen Pound MP, the honourable member for Ealing North, and in the midst of more shocking headlines about parliamentary expenses and second homes, putting up an MP as the main attraction didn’t look like the cleverest timing. (Stephen, it must be said, turned out to be honourable indeed: although he is entitled as an outer London member to claim for a second home, he has not done so and is thus blessedly free from all the opprobrium in our press.)

It can’t even have been the unique availability of free drink, since the amazing generosity of Larissa Saxby-Bridger in lodging a huge tab behind the bar in celebration of her birthday had not been advertised in advance.

No, what had brought them in was the possibility of combining a visit to Plum Pie, the delightful exhibition at Heywood Hill just around the corner, with the meeting. The exhibition has brought a pleasing crop of membership applications and we were bursting with new members and visitors from the United States.

We began with the aforesaid AGM. Gone are the days when there was a species of Great AGM Handicap in the form an unofficial annual attempt to lower the record for the shortest meeting in the Society’s history. In those days, it wasn’t unknown for the treasurer’s report to consist of the office holder gaily waving a couple of sheets of paper at the back of the room claiming them to be the accounts and if anyone wanted they could inspect them. I don’t think anyone ever did check to see that they actually were the accounts, as opposed to a list of the kings of Judah.

Members gathering for the evening

These days we have proper reports, which is quite right and proper, and still fun since we are reporting on the activities of the PGW Society, and if those aren’t fun then we’ve got something badly wrong.

The Chairman reminded us of the activities of the year. And golly! we were busy: wonderful publications; sponsoring pigs; meeting; enjoying our biennial dinner; and so forth. She thanked many of those responsible, especially Norman Murphy who had been leading about twice as many walks as expected because of the huge success of Plum Pie and two committee members who are relinquishing their roles: Joe Selfe, who has been dealing with the technically and legally daunting sorting out of our database, and Alan Wood, who is stepping down as treasurer, in which role he has been thorough and conscientious. (These are two of the real jobs in the running of the society, and take professional expertise and considerable commitment of time.)

Christine Hewitt quite rightly began her report by thanking the Chairman on our behalf. She then told us that membership is stable at around 1000, with both Plum Pie and the Arrow paperbacks fruitful sources of applications; indeed applications are coming in at a rate that is testing our capacity to process them. In his final report, Alan advised us that the Society is both solvent and liquid, with a healthy reserve in the bank. Elin Murphy, editor of the excellent Wooster Sauce (and boy, is that a real job!) and Jamie Jarrett, the website editor (ditto) told us of their plans. Jamie also thanked Chris Reece our technical guru on the website, who has a very busy job also.

The office holders were then promptly re-elected, or in the case of Andrew Chapman, the new treasurer, elected for the first time, before they had chance to think again. Tony Ring and Alan Wood we re-elected to the committee.

After a short break, and an opportunity to refresh ourselves courtesy of Larissa’s kindness, our speaker was introduced by Andrew Parker, who was deemed to qualify for the task because he works in the House of Commons library.

Stephen Pound MP entertains the throng

Stephen Pound has long been a devotee of PGW, and comes from a line of such: hence the middle name of Pelham. I’m not convinced that Stephen’s grasp of the content of the oeuvre is quite 100%, nor his understanding of Wodehouse family history, but since his enthusiasm was operating at about 300% this mattered little to his listeners. The audience was hugely entertained by his funny talk which was, in effect, a tribute to PGW’s genius, illustrated most tellingly by the fact that he (Stephen Pound), a man who does not connect with golf at all, was captivated by the golf stories. The throng loved it.

The meeting concluded with the presentation of a cake to Larissa, followed by the ritual blowing out of candles.

It was a brilliant evening, but left me slightly bothered. Drinks courtesy of a member; the AGM, with lots of funny moments; a hugely enjoyable talk from an MP (who was to be heard the following morning on the Today Programme, but – sadly – without working in a PGW allusion); what if the first-timers assume it to be the norm? No pressure on those organising future events, then.

If you would like to know more about the Arts Club, which the society uses for a number of meetings each year, please click here.