Carry On Jeeves

'My only problem with Wodehouse is deciding which of his enchanting books to take to my desert island' Ruth Dudley Edwards 'The most industrious, prolific and beneficent author ever to have sat down, scratched his head and banged out a sentence' Stephen Fry -- 'Your tea will be here in a moment, sir.' 'No, Jeeves. This is no time for tea. I must concentrate." When his incomparable valet Jeeves suddenly resigns, how will the hapless Bertie Wooster get by? Bertie's dedicated but somewhat untuneful playing of the banjo has driven Jeeves, his otherwise steadfast gentleman's gentleman, to give notice. Looking for respite, Bertie disappears to the country as a guest of his chum Chuffy, only to find his peace shattered by the arrival of his ex-fiancée Pauline Stoker, her formidable father and the eminent loony-doctor Sir Roderick Glossop. It seems Bertie cannot survive for long without Jeeves - and soon a situation arises which only Jeeves can solve.

Jeeves—my man, you know—is really a most extraordinary chap. So capable. Honestly, I shouldn't know what to do without him. On broader lines he's like those chappies who sit peering sadly over the marble battlements at the Pennsylvania Station in the place marked "Inquiries." You know the Johnnies I mean. You go up to them and say: "When's the next train for Melonsquashville, Tennessee?" and they reply, without stopping to think, "Two-forty-three, track ten, change at San Francisco." And they're right every time. Well, Jeeves gives you just the same impression of omniscience. As an instance of what I mean, I remember meeting Monty Byng in Bond Street one morning, looking the last word in a grey check suit, and I felt I should never be happy till I had one like it. I dug the address of the tailors out of him, and had them working on the thing inside the hour. "Jeeves," I said that evening. "I'm getting a check suit like that one of Mr. Byng's." "Injudicious, sir," he said firmly. "It will not become you." "What absolute rot! It's the soundest thing I've struck for years." "Unsuitable for you, sir." Well, the long and the short of it was that the confounded thing came home, and I put it on, and when I caught sight of myself in the glass I nearly swooned. Jeeves was perfectly right. I looked a cross between a music-hall comedian and a cheap bookie. Yet Monty had looked fine in absolutely the same stuff. These things are just Life's mysteries, and that's all there is to it. But it isn't only that Jeeves's judgment about clothes is infallible, though, of course, that's really the main thing. The man knows everything. There was the matter of that tip on the "Lincolnshire." I forget now how I got it, but it had the aspect of being the real, red-hot tabasco. "Jeeves," I said, for I'm fond of the man, and like to do him a good turn when I can, "if you want to make a bit of money have something on Wonderchild for the 'Lincolnshire.'"

In The Inimitable Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves embark on a series of riotous adventures. Among other things they involve Bertie's feeble attempts to stop his friend Bingo Little from falling in love with every girl he meets. But the amiable chump's main concern is to avoid the eagle eye and iron will of his merciless Aunt Agatha. In one of the funniest works in the English language, P. G. Wodehouse charms, delights, and occasionally surprises the reader with his shrewd parody of the carefree lives of the English elite.

Ten classic short stories by author and humorist P. G. Wodehouse tell the amusing antics and occasional mishaps of young gentleman Bertie Wooster, who regularly relies on the infinite wisdom of his consummate valet, Jeeves, for help. Lighthearted and delightful to read, these stories include some of the most popular from the Jeeves canon: “Jeeves Takes Charge,” in which Bertie and Jeeves first meet, and “Bertie Changes His Mind,” the only story told from Jeeves’s point of view.

_______________________________ A Jeeves and Wooster novel Jeeves is on holiday in Herne Bay, and while he's away the world caves in on Bertie Wooster. For a start, he's astonished to read in The Times of his engagement to the mercurial Bobbie Wickham. Then at Brinkley Court, his Aunt Dahlia's establishment, he finds his awful former head master in attendance ready to award the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. And finally the Brinkley butler turns out for reasons of his own to be Bertie's nemesis in disguise, the brain surgeon Sir Roderick Glossop. With all occasions informing against him, Bertie has to hightail it to Herne Bay to liberate Jeeves from his shrimping net. And after that, the fun really starts. ‘I picked up Jeeves in the Offing recently, having not read PG Wodehouse for years. Half an hour later I was still reading and laughing. He can develop a comic idea and deliver the payoff over a chapter, a paragraph, or a single sentence.’ Sadie Jones (in the Guardian)

Bertie returns to London from several weeks in Cannes spent in the company of his Aunt Dahlia Travers and her daughter Angela. In Bertie's absence, Jeeves has been advising Bertie's old school friend, Gussie Fink-Nottle, who is in love with a goofy, sentimental, whimsical, childish girl named Madeline Bassett...

'A comic master' David Walliams 'Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale . . . A world for us to live and delight in' Evelyn Waugh A veritable feast of comedy awaits with this delightful collection of Wodehouse stories featuring the infamous Bertie Wooster and everyone's favourite gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. Witness the iconic first meeting of Bertie and Jeeves and follow them as they navigate the endless scrapes that the hapless Bertie lands them in. Meet the fearsome and meddling Aunt Agatha - who would like nothing more than to see Bertie settle down - and Bingo Little - Bertie's insatiable friend who has fallen head-over-heels for seven different girls. Specially selected and introduced by Wodehouse himself - and containing the timeless classics Carry On, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves and Very Good, Jeeves - there's something for everyone in this omnibus.