The thought of being cooped up in Blandings Castle with Clarence, the Earl of Emsworth, the perennially youthful Galahad and with the Earl's younger son, Freddie Threepwood, openly appalled Colonel Wedge. It was, he grimly asserted, like being wrecked on a desert island with the Marx Brothers. But the arrival of Tipton Plimsoll at Blandings Castle considerably brightened the Colonel's horizon. For Tip-ton was a rich young American and rich young Americans were, in the Colonel's opinion, quite the most desirable companions for his daughter, Veronica, the dumbest beauty listed in the pages of Debrett. The stage was set for a great romance, or so the Colonel thought, and so it might have been had the knowledge of Freddie's erstwhile engagement to Veronica been withheld from the jealous Tipton, or if Prudence, the Earl's niece, had not been forcibly parted from her unsuitable lover, Bill Lister. On such incidents do great issues depend. However, Uncle Gaily, who combined the ready resource of a confidence trickster with the zeal of a cheerful crusader, intervened with an ingenious scheme to reunite the young lovers. It was a master-plan. How the plot miscarried at the crucial stage and in doing so caused a social and domestic revolution unparalleled in the history of Blandings Castle, is revealed in this most hilarious of chronicles.
Author Biography
PG Wodehouse was born on the 15th October 1881 in Guildford, Surrey, England He was educated at Dulwich College between 1894 & 1900 In 1900 he entered the employ of the Hong Kong & Shanghai bank at GBP80 per year ! He began writing articles for various newspapers & periodicals In 1902 he resigned from the bank In the same year his 1st novel The Pothunters was published On the 25th April 1904 Plum arrived in New York for the first time This was the beginning of Plum's career in musicals and editorships As the money starts to come in Plum buys a car (a Darracq Auto) After one lesson he crashes the car into a hedge and never drives again ! Plum then wrote many highly successful novels as well as musicals In 1929 he signed a contract to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood He complains of being paid far too much money for far too little work ! This causes a mini public relations storm in the US press In 1932 Plum returned to England for a short time before settling in France In 1940 Germany occupied France and Plum was interned Wodehouse made a series of radio broadcasts which were widely misconstrued He was vilified and persecuted by the BBC and the English press Confidential records now released show that Wodehouse was totally innocent of the accusations Guilty perhaps only of a little naivety In 1947 Plum moved back to to the USA In 1955 he became a US citizen In 1967 British Prime Minister James Callaghan blocked a Knighthood, read the government report. In 1974 his last complete novel Aunts aren't Gentlemen was published In 1975 he was finally knighted by the Queen Plum's health was so poor his Doctor forbade the trip to England It is believed that the Queen Mother felt so strongly for Wodehouse and at the appalling treatment he had received that she wanted to travel to the US and Knight him herself ! However once again Government interference unjustly stopped this On the 14th Feb 1975 Plum sadly died in hospital "after a good morning's work on his latest novel" Wodehouse was the quintessential British author who only now receives the full credit he deserves
