How old was everyone here when they started reading Wodehouse?

Ian Carmichael singing the theme tune (What in the world would I do, Jeeves? was wonderful, and presumably has been saved for posterity.

Americans? Lord Emsworth's nephews and neices are always marrying Americans. The lovely Sue Brown is part American, IIRC. The Luck of the Bodkins is set on a transatlantic liner with American characters. Dyspeptic American business men with bossy wives are as frequent as aunts. And that's only from memory.

Lord Emsworth’s sister the formidable Lady Constance marries American millionaire, Joe Schoonmaker. Sue Brown has visited Blandings pretending to be his daughter Myra – she has an American accent in any case.

Bertie escapes Aunt Agatha in Carry On Jeeves to New York, which is the scene of some short stories, including The Aunt and the Sluggard, which the World of Wooster re-set in London rather than New York.

In Thank You Jeeves, central characters are Bertie’s old flame Pauline Stoker and her father, the inevitably dyspeptic American millionaire, J Washburn Stoker.

Outside the Blandings and Jeeves stories, Americans are probably even more frequent. The Little Nugget is an American child. The Coming of Bill is wholly American. Mr Mulliner tells stories about Hollywood. Monty Bodkin has to work as Hollywood script writer. And so on...

After the BBC series of last winter, I've finally got round to the first Blandings story. Enjoying it so far. Great writing.

Wodehouse is one of the truly great humorists in all literature. I can say that safely with having read but a tiny fraction of the world's literature but having read a large part of his prolific output. He was a writer who left the world a happier place because of his existence; no small feat when one considers that tragedy seems to feature more readily than comedy in literary output. Which brings me to a problem I have wrestled with concerning a lugubrious cop in one Wodehouse novel set in New York.
As far as I recall, the cop writes gloom and doom poetry and would be at home in the LitNet poetry sub-forums but, try as I might, I haven't been able to track him down. If anyone knows in which book this character features, I would be grateful for the information.

I think I've actually read all of Wodehouse's output but I can't remember this particular character. The one that springs immediately to mind is Ralston McTod, supposedly a famous Canadian metaphysical poet, although the only line of his poetry that anyone ever gets to hear is, "across the pale parabola of joy..." This as in Leave it to Psmith. This tale also has a Miss Peavy, who is not only a crook's partner, but also a poet.

I started reading Wodehouse when I was about 10.

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Originally Posted by Hawkman

I think I've actually read all of Wodehouse's output but I can't remember this particular character. The one that springs immediately to mind is Ralston McTod, supposedly a famous Canadian metaphysical poet, although the only line of his poetry that anyone ever gets to hear is, "across the pale parabola of joy..." This as in Leave it to Psmith. This tale also has a Miss Peavy, who is not only a crook's partner, but also a poet.

I started reading Wodehouse when I was about 10.

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I once toyed with the idea of posting a poem on the personal poem forum entitled 'Across the Pale Parabola of Joy' but I realised there were too many Wodehouse fans to get away with it. I'm beginning to think that the New York policeman might have been from one of Art Buchwald's stories that I was reading around the same time I was ploughing through PGW.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

I once toyed with the idea of posting a poem on the personal poem forum entitled 'Across the Pale Parabola of Joy' but I realised there were too many Wodehouse fans to get away with it. I'm beginning to think that the New York policeman might have been from one of Art Buchwald's stories that I was reading around the same time I was ploughing through PGW.

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Emil, it's definitely a P G Wodehouse. I remember the aspiring poet/policeman so well, though I read it years and years ago. I'll try googling it.

EDIT: It is called The Small Bachelor. It's set in New York during the time of prohibition, so it must be really funny. Should definitely read again. :)

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Originally Posted by mona amon

Emil, it's definitely a P G Wodehouse. I remember the aspiring poet/policeman so well, though I read it years and years ago. I'll try googling it.

EDIT: It is called The Small Bachelor. It's set in New York during the time of prohibition, so it must be really funny. Should definitely read again. :)

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That's marvellous, you are obviously more adroit at using Google than I. The name of the book certainly rings a bell and it really is funny. It came to mind through reading some poems by a Litnet member (who must perforce remain anonymous) that bear a remarkable similarity to those described by Wodehouse in his story.

Checking out The Small Bachelor I came across this quote:

"Well, anyway, we walked around for a while, looking at the animals, and suddenly he asked me to marry him outside the cage of the Siberian yak". "No sir exclaimed Sigsbee H with a sudden strange firmness, the indulgent father who for once in his life asserts himself. "When you get married, you'll get married in St Thomas's like any other nice girl".


I must read it again.