.png)
For those who love humorous stories of the 1920s calamity of Bertie mixed with the serene calmness of Jeeves, then PG Wodehouse is the writer for you. According to his obituary in The Times, he was "a comic genius and an old master of farce", with his books frequently chosen on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. This is why he's our Bijou Recommends author for October.
PG Wodehouse was affectionately known as Plum, an abbreviation of his first name Pelham. He had early success as the writer of school stories and humorous songs, as well as five hit musicals on Broadway in 1917. Wodehouse created almost 100 novels and collections of short stories of the bromance of Jeeves & Wooster, the inhabitants of Blandings Castle and the drunken exploits of the Drones Club members.
Wodehouse would read the Complete Works of Shakespeare every five years and his stories are full of Shakespearean references, for example in the Code of Woosters there are nods to several plays and Sonnet 33.
The wit of PG Wodehouse is riddled through his work, with 'he was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say when!' being one of our favourites.
One of Wodehouse's contemporaries, Evelyn Waugh, once wrote a dedication that said he considered Wodehouse to be "the head of my profession", and when asked about the secret to his success, Wodehouse said, "I just sit at my typewriter and curse a bit."
Interested in having some Wodehouse on your shelves? We have a great Folio Society Jeeves & Wooster set available.