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Number 71 September 2014 Wodehouse and the Sailor by David Gunn ate in 2013, naval and military publishers Pen & Eventually the books would fall apart from all Sword launched my book about an Able Seaman this attention. At this point Phillip solemnly taped iLn the Royal Navy who fought the Turks up the them up (see photograph) and attached an epitaph to River Tigris in 1915 from a Calcutta River Police their front cover, having obtained a new copy. The Launch. He bombarded the enemy with 4.7” guns ‘retired’ edition would remain on his bookshelf with that had last been used at the Relief of Ladysmith in those in current usage. The inscription on his first the Boer War in 1899. copy of Money for Nothing , for instance, reads as What the attendant publicity to Sailor in the follows:- Desert did not say was that this seaman was one of the greatest P G Wodehouse fans of all time and had This book has given me so much pleasure in entered into a correspondence with Plum. its reading for 34 years (on & off). I cannot The sailor concerned, Phillip Gunn – my father, destroy a faithful old friend, and therefore I born in 1895 – was later commissioned as an officer put it into honourable retirement upon in the Royal Navy. In the early 1930s he chanced buying another of the same title. upon Summer Lightning , then Leave It to Psmith. He P.L. Gunn July 1968 was so gripped that, for recreation, he virtually never read anything other than Wodehouse for the rest of The Second World War descended on the world his life. In each book was carefully annotated the and, remote from Mr and Mrs PGW, then in Le month and year in which he had read it. The Code of Touquet, Phillip Gunn – now a Captain, DSM, Royal the Woosters has 35 dates and Money for Nothing 28 Navy, having commanded ships between the wars – between April 1934 and February 1983. found himself in charge of the naval forces at Aden. Two of Phillip Gunn’s ‘retired’ books. His inscriptions read as follows: (Left) I have read this particular book eighteen times. It has served me well for 34 years. It now goes into honourable retirement – with grateful thanks. P L Gunn 1967 (Right) A very faithful old bedside book which has given me much pleasure for 32 years, reading it on & off. So I hereby place it into very honourable retirement, having obtained its replacement. P L Gunn August 1968 Wooster Sauce – September 2014 Eventually, suffering from exhaustion after building the right. In the left foreground, Jeeves, carrying a the base up from two people to 400, he came back to case, advises Bertie Wooster on train times by which Liverpool in a liner. According to the notations in the to escape, while the latter asks for Jeeves’s advice, books, he picked up Quick having been castigated by Aunt Agatha Service (24 readings) from and Lady Constance. Between those Adams & Co, Booksellers of formidable ladies can be seen the distant Durban, when passing head of the Efficient Baxter. Next to through; he also read Constance, Freddie Threepwood lounges Piccadilly Jim (20) on the in an armchair reading a whodunnit. voyage back to England. Beside him, the Hon. Galahad Threepwood On retiring from the Navy is taking a drink, while Lord Emsworth in 1946, Phillip became a is springing out of the armchair on the landscape painter. However, right, losing his spectacles and dropping Wodehouse being so much ‘in his copy of Whiffle on the Pig . his blood’, he could not resist The painting is called P G Wodehouse the temptation to execute a Looks In , the title emerging from the fact composite oil painting of that, centrally, the larger-than-life-size Plum’s characters in the little head of PGW smiles in at his characters Suffolk cottag e/ studio in through a window. which he lived and painted. Wodehouse wrote On its completion, he wrote to Wodehouse in to Phillip that he had Remsenburg, New York, and described what he been delighted to had done. He was delighted to receive a warm receive photographs and personal reply dated September 26, 1960 of the painting (left). (above), saying the author was looking forward He referred to having to getting photographs of the painting. Plum’s had to rewrite the reply did not stop at that but also included a first 30,000 words of description of the devastation he had suffered his new novel but from the latest hurricane and a feeling of ‘slight thought he had got it gloom’ because, after 40,000 words of a new right now. On Blandings Castle novel, he found he had got the checking the dates, story ‘all wrong’. the book to which he Phillip sent off a photograph of the P G referred was almost Wodehouse painting to Plum with some certainly Service with trepidation. Essentially a landscape artist, he a Smile. It is of realised he had limitations so far as figures were interest that Phillip, concerned. But the picture (below) speaks for itself. undoubtedly one of PGW’s greatest fans, notes From left to right, there are members of the Drones uniquely that on this occasion he found it ‘a bit Club in front of a brown panelled bar wall which boring’, suggesting that he felt Wodehouse had not merges into the light blue of the Blandings drawing totally corrected the worries to which he had referred room. At the edges, Ukridge creeps in from the left, in his first letter. Despite this, there are nine dates while Beach, carrying a silver salver, disappears to noted on which Phillip read it at different times. When Phillip (shown right) died in February 1983, I found Very Good, Jeeves alongside the bed in his cottage. He had read it 17 times. David Gunn’s book about his father – Sailor in the Desert: The Adventures of Phillip Gunn, DSM, RN in the Mesopotamia Campaign, 1915 – was written from memoirs and conversations. It is available Phillip Gunn’s painting ‘P G Wodehouse Looks In’. Sadly, David Gunn had to sell the painting during hard in hardback through all times, but he hopes to find out what happened to it. major retailers. Page 2 Wooster Sauce – September 2014 Society News November’s Society Meeting: A New Date and New Location hings were progressing rather nicely with the current Tuesday – from 6 pm onwards, upstairs at The Savoy Wooster Sauce – at the news desk, editor, typewriter, Tup, London WC2 0BA. That’s just off the Strand and aTnd ribbon were operating in perfect harmony for once – but a stone’s throw from where we used to be. There is when the collegiate atmosphere was rudely shattered by the customary excellent ale, wines, champagnes, and soft the unannounced appearance of a reeking messenger. drinks, all served in a rather more intimate atmosphere Ice formed on the Editor’s upper slopes. Raising her than that to which we’ve hitherto grown accustomed.” green eyeshade, she rewarded the intruder with her “Hmm,” replied the Editor. “This is close to being a customary basilisk stare, for she had grown accustomed genuine news item. I’d better recap. The next Society to such untimely interruptions as she was putting the meeting will be held on journal to bed. “Yes?” she ventured wearily. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, “Urgent news!” the messenger gasped. “From the FROM 6 PM AT THE SAVOY TUP, Impresario! We’re moving!” LONDON WC2 0BA The Editor sighed. “Pray explain,” she replied, rolling her eyes heavenwards. “I’m all agog.” . RIGHT?” Although he could detect just the faintest note of “I say,” said the messenger, “there’s no need to shout. sarcasm, the young man persisted. But if you could urge the punters to alter their diaries, “Yes. It’s our meetings. Apparently, our customary and to entice them along with the news that, to leaven the venue, The George, is being converted to a swanky serious business of the AGM, we’re having a fascinating restaurant for lawyers, so after four happy years we’re talk by member Graeme Davidson about the noble work personae non gratae, I’m afraid.” of Wodehouse illustrators, everything would be oojah- “So your mission is to tell me where the Society’s cum-spiff.” November meeting is to be held?” “I see. Consider it done,” said the Editor. “I might “Rem acu tetigisti,” came the reply. “It’s going to be even find room for our first-ever STOP PRESS.” on Wednesday, November 19 – that’s WEDNESDAY, not Biennial Dinner, October 16, 2014 Our Final Champion of Champions lans are well in hand for the biennial dinner at Gray’s or 10 years, as part of our Back the Berkshire Inn on Thursday, October 16. Those members who campaign, the Society has sponsored the Berkshire hPave applied for and been allocated places should have CFhampion of Champions competition at the Royal received a letter of confirmation with details of the County of Berkshire Show in Newbury. Now, with deep evening during the first week of September. This year we regret, we announce that this year will be the last time the have been able to accommodate all those who have Society’s sash will be draped across the winner’s back. applied for places, so if you haven’t received your As the Committee was debating renewal of our confirmation yet, please contact ---. sponsorship, news came that the competition would be Although there are no spare places at the moment, moving to Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, in 2015.