‘Something Fishy’ is a fun read with some excellent one-liners like only Wodehouse can concoct.

The plot’s not particularly gripping, but the characters make it an entertaining read. Lord Uffenham is my favourite. He’s an absent-minded old man with a good heart. He gets the funniest lines. The author is notably good at this type of character.

Overall, then, a dashed good read. ( )

4.5*
Originally published under the title "Something Fishy", this stand-alone shows Wodehouse at his best. Hilarious!
Read in the omnibus "P.G. Wodehouse: 5 Complete Novels" ( )

Originally published under the title "Something Fishy", this stand-alone shows Wodehouse at his best. Hilarious!
Read in the omnibus "P.G. Wodehouse: 5 Complete Novels" ( )

Story of a tontine
Thought I had read a short story along similar lines

Big Ship
4 August 2018 ( )

Originally published in the mid-50s as "The Butler Did It." Not the VERY best of Wodehouse, but a typically contrived romp that is fun for the sheer joy of the plot twists and language. It begins in New York on the eve before the 1929 Crash, and a clot of millionaires forming a tontine for their sons. Not a "last man living" sort of a tontine, but a more suitably Wodehousian "last idle male offspring to get married" sort. The usual array of bumbling viscounts, star-eyed lads, offensive heirs, showgirls, boxers and one brainbox of a butler (not Jeeves, this go round, but one Mr. Augustus Keggs) are on hand.

The thoroughly obnoxious art dealer Mortimer Bayliss is an added bonus.

This edition is a downsized hardback that is a part of the Collector's Wodehouse, reissues that are all freshly typeset and collected as one massive set. ( )