Robert Herrick

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen is PG Wodehouse’s last complete novel, published in 1974, a year before he died aged ninety-three. At an age when his creative juices might be expected to dry up, it is right up to his usual high standard. If you want to know why Bertie Wooster is mistaken for arch-criminal Alpine Joe and Jeeves is mistaken for Inspector Witherspoon of the Yard but explains he is Bertie’s solicitor, you’ll just have to read the book.

An extraordinary aspect is the breadth and depth of literary and Biblical references. In those pre-internet days he had an encyclopaedic knowledge perhaps assisted by a dictionary of quotations. Early on Jeeves says: “Men are suspicious, prone to discontent. Subjects still loathe the present Government.” Jeeves quotes Robert Herrick’s Civil War poem, Present Government Grievous, as relevant in 1974 as it was in 1644. However, frankly, it is an obscure poem by a fairly obscure poet and so an especially erudite allusion. Certainly not one I would have identified in 1974 when I was reading English at Durham.

Is it relevant today? The Prime Minister and some of her Government are nobly trying to carry out the wishes of the people expressed in the 2016 EU referendum, while the majority of MPs are trying to thwart her and the electorate. Twas ever thus.

In the years leading up to Catholic Emancipation (1829) and the Great Reform Act (1832) the electorate, such as it was in those days, was opposed to both measures but Members of Parliament took no notice. With nearly two hundred years of hindsight the MPs have been proved right.

One thing I hope we can all agree on is that today the electorate is a great deal better informed on the implications and ramifications of leaving the EU than in June 2016. Should we have another referendum? No, we are too far down the road but if we did, although I voted Remain in 2016, I would vote Leave as a matter of principle.