Book description
A Blandings collection
The ivied walls of Blandings Castle have seldom glowed as
sunnily as in these wonderful stories - but there are snakes in the
rolling parkland ready to nip Clarence, the absent-minded Ninth Earl
of Emsworth, when he least expects it.
For a start the Empress of Blandings, in the running for her first
prize in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show, is
off her food Â- and can only be coaxed back to the trough by a call
in her own language. Then there is the feud with Head Gardener
McAllister, aided by Clarence's sister, the terrifying Lady Constance,
and the horrible prospect of the summer fête - twin problems solved
by the arrival of a delightfully rebellious little girl from London.
But first of all there is the vexed matter of the custody of the pumpkin.
Skipping an ocean and a continent, Wodehouse also treats us to some
unputdownable stories of excess from the monstrous Golden Age of Hollywood.
The author of almost a hundred books and the creator of Jeeves,
Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, Uncle Fred and Mr Mulliner, P. G.
Wodehouse was born in 1881 and educated at Dulwich College. After two
years with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank he became a full-time writer,
contributing to a variety of periodicals. As well as his novels and
short stories, he wrote lyrics for musical comedies, and at one stage
had five shows running simultaneously on Broadway. At the age of 93, in
the New Year's Honours List of 1975, he received a long-overdue
Knighthood, only to die on St Valentine's Day some 45 days later.
