Book description
A Mulliner collection
In the Angler's Rest, drinking hot scotch and lemon, sits one of
Wodehouse's greatest raconteurs. Mr Mulliner, his vivid imagination
lubricated by Miss Postlethwaite the barmaid, has fabulous stories to
tell of the extraordinary behaviour of his far-flung family: in
particular there's Wilfred, inventor of Raven Gypsy face-cream and
Snow of the Mountain Lotion, who lights on the formula for
Buck-U-Uppo, a tonic given to elephants to enable them to face tigers
with the necessary nonchalance. Its explosive effects on a shy young
curate and then the higher clergy is gravely revealed. Then there's
his cousin James, the detective-story writer, who has inherited a
cottage more haunted than anything in his own imagination. And Isadore
Zinzinheimer, head of the Bigger, Better & Brighter Motion Picture
Company. Tall tales all - but among Wodehouse's best.
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.
