P G Wodehouse

Heavy Weather is a humorous novel by the renowned English author, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. It was first published in 1933 and is set in the fictional English county of Shropshire. The book follows the lives of the eccentric members of the aristocratic Blandings family, who are preparing for the annual Shropshire Agricultural Show. The main protagonist is Lord Emsworth, the absent-minded and somewhat dim-witted head of the Blandings family, who is more interested in his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings, than in his family's affairs. The story revolves around the efforts of various characters to secure the Empress of Blandings for the show, including Lord Emsworth's scheming sister, Lady Constance, who is determined to win the Best in Show trophy at any cost. Other characters include the glamorous American heiress, Miss Hermione Bellville, who is visiting Shropshire, and the hapless private detective, Monty Bodkin, who is hired by Lady Constance to keep an eye on her brother. As the preparations for the show progress, chaos ensues, with mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and a series of hilarious misunderstandings. The book is filled with Wodehouse's trademark wit and clever wordplay, as well as his keen observations of the quirks and foibles of English high society. Overall, Heavy Weather is a delightful and entertaining novel that is sure to appeal to fans of Wodehouse's witty and charming style. It is a classic example of his comic genius and remains a beloved work of English literature to this day. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Welcome to Blandings Castle, where life in the country is anything but relaxing. The Earl of Emsworth would love to spend his days by the side of his prize-winning sow, the Empress of Blandings. Unfortunately for him, snobby sisters, crazy secretaries, prying detectives, and a pushy publishing magnate are all ready to disturb the peace of Blandings Castle. Newly repackaged with beautiful new covers created by a group of talented young artists are four novels and one short story collection (Blandings Castle). The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled. All those who know them long to return. Evelyn Waugh I envy those who ve never read him before the prospect of reams of unread Wodehouse stretching out in front of you is . . . something which is enticing to contemplate. Tony Blair

Welcome to Shropshire, England-in this dreamy countryside lies Blandings Castle, seat of the ninth Earl of Emsworth. He and his family live an idyllic life of peace and solitude, punctuated by afternoon tea, long strolls in the garden, and summer showers. Or would if they weren't in a Wodehouse story. The apple of Lord Emsworth's eye is the Empress of Blandings, a splendid Berkshire sow who has twice won honors in the Fat Pig class at the local agricultural show. Besides keeping his pig in shape, Emsworth must deal with his sister's snobby demeanor, his brother's crazy memoirs, and a rival pig whose bulk might dash the Empress's hopes of another medal. Throw in a few young lovers and you have yourself a perfect brew of hilarious adventures. Included in this omnibus are Summer Lightning, Heavy Weather, and Blandings Castle. Evelyn Waugh once said, The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled. All those who know them long to return.

This charming story of the Jackson cricketing dynasty describes the adventures of Mike Jackson at boarding school as he makes his way up the sporting ladder to the first eleven. The young P. G. Wodehouse evokes the peaceful, prosperous world of middle-class England before the Great War, a place where rich men hire private cricket professionals to coach their sons at home, and little seems to matter at school except the publishing of team lists and the taking of tea. But such is the novelist's skill that he can make excitement from the small-scale dramas of teenage life, and interest even the most unsporting reader in the cricket matches he describes so lovingly. A curiosity for those who know only the Wodehouse of Blandings and Piccadilly, but a delightful one.

The Adventures of Sally is a transatlantic comedy set in worlds Wodehouse knew well: American theatres, English country houses, and the theatrical boarding-houses where young men and women dream of finding fame and fortune. Coming into an inheritance, one of these young women, Sally, is able to leave her boarding-house at last, and looks forward to a quiet life in a small apartment. Instead, she finds herself swept up in a series of adventures with her ambitious brother, an accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman she meets on a French beach, and his supercilious cousin who pursue her across the Atlantic. While losing her inheritance backing a play, and then retrieving it, she sheds an unsatisfactory fiancé, falls in love with the accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman, rejects the supercilious cousin, and finds happiness in a kennel on Long Island.

Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman s gentleman, Jeeves, in this stunning new edition of one of the greatest comic short story collections in the English language. This classic collection of linked stories feature some of the funniest episodes in the life of Bertie Wooster, gentleman, and Jeeves, his gentleman s gentleman in which Bertie's terrifying Aunt Agatha stalks the pages, seeking whom she may devour, while Bertie s friend Bingo Little falls in love with seven different girls in succession (he marries the last, bestselling romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks). And Bertie, with Jeeves s help, just evades the clutches of the terrifying Honoria Glossop. At its heart is one of Wodehouse s most delicious stories and a comic masterpiece, "The Great Sermon Handicap."

Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman s gentleman, Jeeves, in this stunning new edition of one of the greatest comic novels in the English language. Steeple Bumphleigh is a very picturesque place. But for Bertie Wooster, it is a place to be avoided, containing not only the appalling Aunt Agatha but also her husband, the terrifying Lord Worplesdon. So when a certain amount of familial arm-twisting is applied, Bertie heads for the sticks in fear and trepidation despite the support of the irreplaceable Jeeves."

Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman s gentleman, Jeeves, in this stunning new edition of one of the greatest comic novels in the English language. Bertie must deal with the Market Snodsbury Grammar School prize giving, the broken engagement of his cousin Angela, the wooing of Madeline Bassett by Gussie Fink-Nottle, and the resignation of Anatole, the genius chef. Will he prevail? Only with the aid of Jeeves!"

First published in the USA by Doubleday Doran, 1930--T.p. verso.

Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman s gentleman, Jeeves, in this stunning new edition of one of the greatest comic novels in the English language. When Aunt Dahlia demands that Bertie Wooster help her dupe an antique dealer into selling her an 18th-century cow-creamer. Dahlia trumps Bertie's objections by threatening to sever his standing invitation to her house for lunch, an unthinkable prospect given Bertie's devotion to the cooking of her chef, Anatole. A web of complications grows as Bertie's pal Gussie Fink-Nottle asks for counseling in the matter of his impending marriage to Madeline Bassett. It seems Madeline isn't his only interest; Gussie also wants to study the effects of a full moon on the love life of newts. Added to the cast of eccentrics are Roderick Spode, leader of a fascist organization called the Saviors of Britain, who also wants that cow-creamer, and an unusual man of the cloth known as Rev. H. P. "Stinker" Pinker. As usual, butler Jeeves becomes a focal point for all the plots and ploys of these characters, and in the end only his cleverness can rescue Bertie from being arrested, lynched, and engaged by mistake!"

When a valuable scarab belonging to an American millionaire is absent-mindedly stolen by Lord Emsworth, young writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine are tasked with infiltrating Blandings Castle to retrieve it. Meanwhile, vacuous Freddie Threepwood worries that some compromising letters may scupper his engagement to the millionaire's daughter. Wodehouse's comic masterpiece combines above and below stairs pretensions with all the fun of a romantic thriller. Martin Jarvis is an award-winning British actor and the 'Olivier of audiobooks'.

'The funniest writer ever to put words to paper' HUGH LAURIE_____________________________________________From his early days Wodehouse adored cricket and references to the game run like a golden thread though his writings.

Table of Contents BILL THE BLOODHOUND5 EXTRICATING YOUNG GUSSIE17 WILTON'S HOLIDAY32 THE MIXER43 CROWNED HEADS64 AT GEISENHEIMER'S76 THE MAKING OF MAC'S89 KATIE99 ONE TOUCH OF NATURE102 BLACK FOR LUCK111 THE ROMANCE OF AN UGLY POLICEMAN123 A SEA OF TROUBLES134 THE MAN WITH TWO LEFT FEET143 DEATH AT THE EXCELSIOR156 MISUNDERSTOOD172 THE BEST SAUCE178 JEEVES AND THE CHUMP CYRIL190 JEEVES IN THE SPRINGTIME206 CONCEALED ART220 THE TEST CASE230 BILL THE BLOODHOUND There's a divinity that shapes our ends. Consider the case of Henry Pifield Rice, detective. I must explain Henry early, to avoid disappointment. If I simply said he was a detective, and let it go at that, I should be obtaining the reader's interest under false pretences. He was really only a sort of detective, a species of sleuth. At Stafford's International Investigation Bureau, in the Strand, where he was employed, they did not require him to solve mysteries which had baffled the police. He had never measured a footprint in his life, and what he did not know about bloodstains would have filled a library. The sort of job they gave Henry was to stand outside a restaurant in the rain, and note what time someone inside left it. In short, it is not 'Pifield Rice, Investigator. No. 1.-The Adventure of the Maharajah's Ruby' that I submit to your notice, but the unsensational doings of a quite commonplace young man, variously known to his comrades at the Bureau as 'Fathead', 'That blighter what's-his-name', and 'Here, you ' Henry lived in a boarding-house in Guildford Street. One day a new girl came to the boarding-house, and sat next to Henry at meals. Her name was Alice Weston. She was small and quiet, and rather pretty. They got on splendidly. Their conversation, at first confined to the weather and the moving-pictures, rapidly became more intimate. Henry was surprised to find that she was on the stage, in the chorus. Previous chorus-girls at the boarding-house had been of a more pronounced type-good girls, but noisy, and apt to wear beauty-spots. Alice Weston was different. 'I'm rehearsing at present, ' she said. 'I'm going out on tour next month in "The Girl From Brighton". What do you do, Mr. Rice' Henry paused for a moment before replying. He knew how sensational he was going to be. 'I'm a detective.' Usually, when he told girls his profession, squeaks of amazed admiration greeted him. Now he was chagrined to perceive in the brown eyes that met his distinct disapproval. 'What's the matter' he said, a little anxiously, for even at this early stage in their acquaintance he was conscious of a strong desire to win her approval. 'Don't you like detectives' 'I don't know. Somehow I shouldn't have thought you were one.' This restored Henry's equanimity somewhat. Naturally a detective does not want to look like a detective and give the whole thing away right at the start. 'I think-you won't be offended' 'Go on.' 'I've always looked on it as rather a sneaky job.' 'Sneaky ' moaned Henry. 'Well, creeping about, spying on people.' Henry was appalled. She had defined his own trade to a nicety. There might be detectives whose work was above this reproach, but he was a confirmed creeper, and he knew it. It wasn't his fault. The boss told him to creep, and he crept. If he declined to creep, he would be sacked instanter. It was hard, and yet he felt the sting of her words, and in his bosom the first seeds of dissatisfaction with his occupation took root. You might have thought that this frankness on the girl's part would have kept Henry from falling in love with her. Certainly the dignified thing would have been to change his seat at table, and take his meals next to someone who appreciated the romance of detective work a little more. But no, he remained where he was, and presently Cupid, who never shoots with a surer aim than through the steam of boarding-house hash, sniped him where he sat. H

Following the death of Carmen Flores, the lubricious Mexican star, Adela Cork buys her Hollywood house. Hoping to escape from the domineering Adela, her brother-in-law Smedley, who has lived with her since losing his money, searches the house for Carmen's legendary lost diary, in the belief that its scorching revelations about the sex life of her fellow stars will make him millions. He is helped and hindered by a safe-blowing butler, a pompous movie mogul, a posse of unemployed scriptwriters, and the redoubtable Adela herself. Fortunately, Adela's sister, 'Bill' Shannon, not for nothing nicknamed 'the Old Reliable', is on hand to ensure a satisfactory outcome. A light comedy which is also a sharp satire on Hollywood mores.

This is the tale of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, one of Wodehouse's favourite protagonists, and his fraught attempt to establish a business farming chickens on the coast of Dorset. The story is told by Jeremy Garnet through whose bemused eyes we observe the magnificent Ukridge at work while following Garnet's own chequered romance with the daughter of a neighbouring professor.

Freddie Widgeon wants the money to buy shares in a coffee plantation in Kenya so that he can marry Sally Foster. Soapy and Dolly Molloy want to get their hands on a cache of stolen jewels hidden in the house of Freddie's neighbour in the suburb of Valley Fields. When their paths cross, the ensuing misunderstandings lead to vintage Wodehouse comedy.