Category: PG Wodehouse

Thank You, Plum

September was a good month for Wodehousians. On the 20th we assembled in Westminster Abbey for Evensong and then, in a state of Grace but not Monaco, the Duke of Kent presented a memorial to PGW to the Dean, who dedicated it.

Two Englishmen Abroad

Alistair Cooke’s radio broadcasts are beautifully modulated, finely crafted, miniature masterpieces. To stumble upon one is to find a Fabergé egg in the henhouse; although Peter Carl Fabergé made only fifty-two Imperial Easter eggs and Alistair Cooke delivered 2,869 editions of Letter from America.

Odd Jobs

It is four years since I was made redundant. I segued into a seven-day, fifty-two weeks a year job. You are reading it now.

The Beagle Has Landed

Not all the news is bad. There was an item in The Guardian this week noting that the urban bird population is increasing and is more diverse because of the popularity of bird feeders charged with nutritious and tempting food.

Out to Lunch

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?” (AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh) 

The Dragon Book of Verse

The Dragon Book of Verse was first published in 1935. The introduction to my (1937) edition was the property of Leighton Park School in Reading; a Quaker school founded in 1890. The Introduction explains that it is divided into two Books.

A Good Gossip

I’m reading The Journals of Kenneth Rose in small doses, not because they are heavy going; they are highly readable; there are aperçus on every page and they deserve to be savoured.

High Treason

Is it too soon to digress? Don’t muddle High Toast with High Treason; the former an agreeably astringent snuff but the latter is also to be taken seriously. In ‘the good old days’, the existence of which is very doubtful, the usual punishment for dabbling in the latter was hanging, drawing and quartering.