Uploaded November 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
With 80-plus books to its credit already, the P.G. Wodehouse Estate (unlike Agatha Christie's) is hardly anxious to add to its oeuvre; but on the rare occasions it has done so, its efforts have proved felicitous.
Sebastian Faulks, improbably, led the charge in 2013, with a pastiche entitled Jeeves and the Wedding Bells; but five years later, the inimitable Ben Schott, of Schott's Miscellanies fame, has bested him. In a bravura performance, of positively Wodehousian stature, this wicked author has created a cocktail of such distinction that even your faithful correspondent would be hard pressed to differentiate it from the Real McCoy.
In this particularly ridiculous conceit, our hero, Jeeves, has been pressed into service yet again, this time for British Intelligence. Not only does he become a spy, but he becomes sufficiently embroiled in the machinations of war that even he becomes confused. Enter airhead Bertie, who springs to both his defence and that of the nation, but not before fixing auctions, backing horses, and blackballing social rogues and vagabonds.
Vintage PGW from someone who clearly knows him well.
"Jeeves and Wooster" credits:
- photos Picture Partnership & Granada Television
- theme song Anne Dudley/WMG
- graphics Derek W. Hayes
More videos at bookreviewsandvideos.com
With 80-plus books to its credit already, the P.G. Wodehouse Estate (unlike Agatha Christie's) is hardly anxious to add to its oeuvre; but on the rare occasions it has done so, its efforts have proved felicitous.
Sebastian Faulks, improbably, led the charge in 2013, with a pastiche entitled Jeeves and the Wedding Bells; but five years later, the inimitable Ben Schott, of Schott's Miscellanies fame, has bested him. In a bravura performance, of positively Wodehousian stature, this wicked author has created a cocktail of such distinction that even your faithful correspondent would be hard pressed to differentiate it from the Real McCoy.
In this particularly ridiculous conceit, our hero, Jeeves, has been pressed into service yet again, this time for British Intelligence. Not only does he become a spy, but he becomes sufficiently embroiled in the machinations of war that even he becomes confused. Enter airhead Bertie, who springs to both his defence and that of the nation, but not before fixing auctions, backing horses, and blackballing social rogues and vagabonds.
Vintage PGW from someone who clearly knows him well.
"Jeeves and Wooster" credits:
- photos Picture Partnership & Granada Television
- theme song Anne Dudley/WMG
- graphics Derek W. Hayes
More videos at bookreviewsandvideos.com
