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)

Not such a savage ending

by Andrew Woodger

The Chairman wasn't passing the onions around to make sure we shed tears, but it was indeed the end of an era as the Society held its last ever social gathering at Plum's old haunt at the Savage Club in the National Liberal Club near Charing Cross station.

The day had started erratically for me. A lack of Circle Line tubes meant we arrived late at Victoria and had to play catch-up to join Elin Murphy's Dulwich Walk. Such was my state of mental anguish that I managed to confuse left with right on arrival at east Dulwich in a fairly fat-headed way which wouldn't have been out of place among Bertie's circle of friends. Anyway, we did finally catch up with the party on the steps of Dulwich College and had the guided tour of the library with its mock-up of Plum's study.

Astonishly, the rain held off for the whole day and we arrived at the Savage Club at 6pm to find it already struggling to contain the PGWS, whose numbers were bolstered by the Week With Wodehouse tour. This would have been the first meeting since the Spode-like introduction of the smoking ban in confined public places, but Norman Murphy had already established that one could sneak out for a gasper on the terrace, which was a lot cooler than the furnace which the Savage seems to turn into when I go to the July meetings.

Chairman Hilary Bruce welcomed the throng and we were then treated to a short but sweet talk by Robert McCrum who's the author of Wodehouse: A Life. He gave us an insight into the art of writing a 'niche' book and attempted to double his sales by hinting that an updated version was already in the pipeline! Most interesting was that the book had sold more in hardback than paperback – and that, not unexpectedly, the main talking point as far as the media was concerned was the Berlin Broadcasts. Robert was available to discuss the finer details of his work with individuals afterwards.

Ironically, the bugbear of background noise from Savage members while we tried to enjoy our guest speaker was absent on this last visit to the Club.

Tony Ring, Hilary Bruce and Robert McCrum

Attempts to introduce a young, male, American visitor to the delights of English real ale also proved unsuccessful. Some people simply refuse to be led astray – what chance is there of a revival of stealing policemen's helmets?