Category: PG Wodehouse

What’s Up?

An unusual convention in Bridge is the Lightner double, described by Susanna Gross in The Spectator as “a bolt out of the blue which strikes fear into your heart. There you are, having bid confidently to slam, when suddenly one of your opponents pulls out the red card. Eek! It’s a Lightner double, which means they… Continue reading What’s Up?

Pouncing

The Earl of Ickenham believed in pouncing. Let him explain the Ickenham System in his own words. I call it that. Just giving you the bare outlines, you stride up to the subject, grab her by the wrist, clasp her to your bosom and shower burning kisses on her upturned face. You don’t have to… Continue reading Pouncing

The Have Yachts

When I was forty, two of my first cousins gave a party at my favourite Chinese restaurant, Mr Kong in Lisle Street. It closed at the end of 2015 so don’t go looking for it. When I was fifty I gave a small dinner party at my club. When I was sixty …

Wodehouse in Swaledale

After dicing with death for almost five hours on the M1 it was good to change down a couple of gears and drive up the narrow, winding road to Swaledale and Keld. The cottage is old-fashioned with thick stone walls, a small stone-flagged kitchen and so on.

Partitions, a new play by Tom Stoppard

Mary Kenny’s Crown and Shamrock colours in the history of the relationship between Britain and Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries, often producing unexpected quirky details – always popular here.

Another Snake

Guess who is the longest running PG Wodehouse character? Tony Ring knows and I hear Norman Murphy shouting the answer from heaven.

Stead, Journalist

It is 8.44 miles from my front door to The Water Poet near Liverpool Street. I don’t have a pedometer but Uber faithfully records the mileage and notes that I was picked up at 6.13 pm after a lunch that began at 12.30.

A Forgotten Author

I don’t know how I know the story of The Monkey’s Paw. Perhaps it was done as a play at Castle Park or read to us there? It is a short story published in 1902 and subsequently adapted for stage, screen and the wireless. The genre, if you don’t know it, is spooky, chiller,thriller.