The P G Wodehouse Miscellany

The books were very popular, since schoolboys found them different from the ‘moral and improving’ school stories that were still common. Wodehouse wrote them from a boy’s point of view, and such moral principles as he expressed were those boys approved of. You didn’t tell tales to get another boy into trouble; you might cheat in your daily schoolwork but never in an examination.

Since everybody knew General Bosquet’s description of the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, ‘C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre’, the news that the French government was reducing the strength of beer was promptly greeted with: ‘C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas lager.’

He realised early on that an overbearing father or mother cannot be a figure of fun; an overbearing aunt or uncle can, and this became a permanent factor, especially in the stories featuring Bertie Wooster

Since Wodehouse’s father and mother both came from large families, he possessed no fewer than twenty aunts and fifteen uncles.