Number 68 December 2013 What a Year! he year 2013 has surely Commissioned by the been memorable for Estate and written by WTodehouse fans. In January Sebastian Faulks, Jeeves and we watched the BBC’s the Wedding Bells has Blandings television series. received mixed reviews, but Though purists would not many Wodehouseans have call this an auspicious start, it sparked a great deal already reported being pleasantly surprised by the of comment and thus interest in Wodehouse, an d book. On page 2 are some recent reviews as well as it was well enough received for the BBC to reactions from readers. (There will be more about commission a second series. the book in the March Then came the superb Wodehouse in Exile , 2014 issue.) broadcast on BBC Four The greatest hit of in March. Starring the year, though, is Tim Pigott-Smith and undoubtedly Perfect Zoë Wanamaker as Nonsense , the play- Plum and Ethel, this within-a-play starring drama cast new light Stephen Mangan as on the events leading Bertie Wooster and up to and following the Matthew Macfadyen as Berlin broadcasts. Jeeves (and many other In July we celebrated characters); the excellent the 100th anniversary Mark Hadfield plays of the day Wodehouse saw Percy Jeeves play at Seppings, Aunt Dahlia, Cheltenham and mentally filed the name away – a and Roderick Spode. day which left its mark forever on English Rapturously greeted by both critics and Society literature. (See page 16 for a review of the recent members – see page 3 if you don’t believe us – book on Percy Jeeves.) Perfect Nonsense has put the finishing touches on Everyman’s Library continued its laudable task making 2013 the Year of Wodehouse. of publishing a complete collectors’ edition, and What lies ahead in 2014? Aside this autumn saw two more books added to the from the continuing success of list, stories rarely seen or never before repub- Perfect Nonsense , we will see the lished. (See pages 9 and 20 for more on this.) second series of Blandings , and The year is closing on the highest note yet the spotlight will be thrown on with two events for which the Trustees of the PGW’s poetry (see pages 4 and Wodehouse Estate deserve congratulations. 15). And September 30, 2014, Almost simultaneously, we have the marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of a brand- new Jeeves and Wooster day Plum and Ethel Wodehouse tied novel and two of our favourite Wodehouse the knot. Now, there’s another good characters appearing onstage. reason for celebration! Wooster Sauce – December 2013 Jeeves and the Wedding Bells Some views on the new book by Sebastian Faulks Personal Comments complicated as The Mating Season , which I have always considered to be Wodehouse’s best book, and I could I have such an extreme prejudice towards Wodehouse hardly wait to see how it all turned out in the end. It pastiches and parodies that I have a policy is not Wodehouse, but it is very near of not printing any in these pages. So it. Bertie and Jeeves behave as they imagine my astonishment when I read the ought to and, far more difficult, they book and found myself rather . well, speak exactly as they ought to speak. enjoying it. One shouldn’t approach the book Sebastian Faulks is to be expecting pure Wodehouse – it is Sebastian congratulated. Faulks paying homage to Wodehouse, and – Norman Murphy in that sense he does a jolly good job of it. Two disparate views of the book are given What Some Critics Had to Say below. More comments are welcome, but please keep them short. (Note: Patrick Kidd’s review will be – The Editor printed in full in the March issue, along with extracts from other reviews.) After reading an initial chapter, what For me, Faulks captures perfectly sprang to mind was: “This is Wodehouse both the tone and the spirit of Lite.” Like cut-price foodstuffs which look Wodehouse’s originals. What’s more, much the same as the original, but have he does so in a manner that, in much of the essential quality extracted. A Sebastian Faulks at the book’s launch party on November 4. rekindling happy memories of those particular concern was the introduction of books, reinvigorates one’s retro- several new major characters; I think Faulks should spective enjoyment of the originals. have simply created a new plot with the old – Matthew Dennison, The Spectator , November 2 characters, and the reader would have felt so much more at home. But to write a new entry in the Jeeves canon, the I was struck by Bertie’s announcement (p.11) very nerve of it. What Wooster sauce! It is something that he came into money when still at Oxford. Not Faulks is clearly nervous about. In an author’s note, so! We were informed in he is at pains to say that ‘Jeeves Takes Charge’ that It was the sheer volume of the butler that was this is “a tribute and a he is “more or less overwhelming. If one of the heads on Mount thank you” to Wodehouse, dependent on Uncle Rushmore had taken first a body then a breathing form, it could have picked up a hint or two from exhorting his readers to Willoughby” for his this Bicknell. Monumental was the word that came check out the originals. finances. Did Faulks not to mind. No one could have wished – or dared – He need not have worried. notice this, or decide to to call him corpulent: there was no suggestion of Despite an occasional rewrite Wodehousean fact? spare flesh beneath that mighty waistcoat; but it wander into “Wodehouse Shame on him either way. would have been unwise to attempt a by the numbers” — I To sum up – I feel the circumnavigation without leaving some sort of forwarding address or poste restante . opened a random page trouble is that PGW set and immediately saw a the bar so high that it is (Jeeves and the Wedding Bells , chapter 4) “spiffing” — Faulks has simply asking too much done a fine job that is even of the most gifted to reach his heights. faithful to the spirit of the originals while offering a – Murray Hedgcock few novelties. – Patrick Kidd, The Times , November 2 Over the last 40 years I have read many imitations and pastiches, and all of them palled by the second [T]he best comic turn comes from the novel’s own paragraph. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is in a very double texture. Faulks, like Bertie, is involved in his different league, and to my surprise, after a few own complicated act of dressing up – the literary pages I was hooked and read the book in one sitting. I equivalent of squeezing himself into someone else’s was very impressed by Faulks’s metaphors. For just trousers. Throughout the book we get a sense of one example, Bertie speaks of a lifelong friend: what Faulks hears in Wodehouse’s style. Loopy “Woody and I had seen more scrapes than a barber’s backstories abound, epithets are transferred, and strop.” comparisons stretched. Even the pace pays tribute to The use of quotations and, far more difficult, Wodehouse’s impeccable timing. Bertie’s misquotations is excellent. The plot is just as – Sophie Ratcliffe, The Guardian , November 6 Page 2 8 Wooster Sauce – December 2013 Perfect Nonsense The play enjoyed a near-perfect reception Perfect Nonsense – written by executed serendipity, speed Robert and David Goodale and of transformation, and joy directed by Sean Foley – had trial and elation at the continuous runs at the Theatre Royal Brighton triumphs, rolls inexorably, and at the Richmond Theatre minute by minute through before settling down at the Duke the evening. Exhausting for of York’s Theatre in London the cast, sheer exuberance for (where it will run until March 8). the audience. Members who saw the show prior * – Including the dog to its official opening (when it was Bartholomew. still being developed and fine- tuned) wrote in with enthusiastic comments. (See also the review on page 18.) Previews at the Duke of York’s Theatre began on October 30 and continued until Press Night on Christine Hewitt reported after seeing the show in November 12. While there were a few critics who Brighton: The audience laughed and clapped found it a bit over the top (Dominic Maxwell of The throughout at various lines or funny little tricks with Times felt that “Wodehouse’s wit was crowded out by the scenery. Overheard during the interval: “The some of the slapstick stagecraft”), the majority found thing about the humour here is that it is under- much to applaud in the production. Following are a stated”; and: “That was brilliant. I will get my few extracts; there will be more in the March issue. Wodehouse books out and read them again.” There were a few small tweaks that I would make here and With his glassy grin and an astonishing laugh that there, but it really is an excellent entertainment. puts one in mind of both a braying donkey and a door creaking open on rusty hinges, Stephen Mangan John Perry saw the Richmond production: Total knock- proves the perfect Wooster, achieving exactly the out! Absolute scream from first to last. Rolling in the right mixture of bonhomie, idiocy and panic. A aisles etc. 5* cast, 5* script, 5* performances, 5* particularly delightful scene finds him playing with a stage-work, 5* scenery effects. Stupendous evening. rubber duck in a foaming bathtub, lost in a little Should run & run. Was told the run was a sell-out, so world of pure happiness.