The Code of the Woosters. By P.G. Wodehouse

The Code of the Woosters

P.G. Wodehouse

Penguin Books. First published 1938.

Among the top 10% of PGW books, this is a brilliantly plotted novel about Wooster and Jeeves, the fearful imbroglio in which Wooster lands, and the magnificent work by Jeeves in hauling him out of it. It features Sir Watkyn Basset, the magistrate who builds up a fortune by 'sticking like glue' to the fines he levies on the offenders brought up before him; Roderick Spode, an aspiring dictator with a dark secret; the good and deserving Aunt Dahlia, who wants Bertie to steal a cow creamer; Madeline Basset, who is so sentimental and mushy, she thinks 'every time fairy blows it's nose, a wee baby is born'; Gussie Fink-Nottle, who is engaged to Madeline, and conducts scientific experiments on the love-life of newts; Stephanie Byng, a petite female who has a running battle with the village policeman, Constable Dobbs; and her fiance Harold 'Stinker' Pinker, a local curate, who is so clumsy he would trip and fall over something, even in the Gobi desert. The writing is superb, with almost every line a delight. I pick one at random - 'The eyes behind the spectacles were cold. He looked like an annoyed turbot'.

This book is also associated in my mind with the smell and taste of peanut butter. It was one of the the first PGW I read, in Project House, Devnar, Mumbai, in about 1968 or '69. I read it in the afternoon, after school, as I tasted peanut butter sandwiches for the first time.