Enjoying a PGW fest with 4 books in a row. This is as humorous as the first. As always it’s as expertly narrated as the rest of the series is. ( )

This is another delightful offering from the pen, or at least typewriter of the comic genius that was P G Wodehouse.

First published in 1958, I don’t think that this would make it into the premier league of Wodehouse’s novels, such as [Right Ho, Jeeves], [Joy in the Morning] or [The Code of the Woosters], yet that still leaves considerable scope for it to entertain, which it does by the bucketful, or as Bertie Wooster might have said, ‘by the snootful’.

One of Wodehouse’s less well-known recurring characters is the Earl of Ickenham (also known as Uncle Fred), who is hewn from the same indomitable rock as the Honourable Galahad Threepwood, with a boundless capacity to strew mayhem wherever he might go. Now in advanced years, he is seldom allowed to venture into London unsupervised by his wife, the only person capable of reining in his mischievous tendencies. However, for as important an occasion as the annual Eton v Harrow match at Lord’s, normal regimes are relaxed. Up in the capital, with a spring in his step, Lord Ickenham starts the day in a sprightly way, demonstrating to the fellow members of the Drones Club, who have gathered for a pre-prandial nip, that he has not lost his boyhood skills, and with a catapult borrowed form the nephew of another member, fires a Brazil nut at the top hat of his stuffy old acquaintance Raymond Bastable.

This simple episode has significant and entirely unforeseen consequences, with Bastable, being goaded to demonstrate that he too had lived in Arcadia, writing the rollicking and sensational novel Cocktail Time, based on episode from his youth. However, although prepared to relate these episodes from his gilded youth, he remains sufficiently buttoned up (not least because he hopes to secure the Conservative candidacy for a safe parliamentary seat) to insist that they are published under a pseudonym. That is where the shenanigans begin.

While I feel that this does not quite match up to Wodehouse on mid-season form, it does display his characteristic effortless verbal dexterity, liberally spattered with scholarly allusions and quotations, and the blissful inanity of a sort of eternal Edwardian Corinthian spirit. This book bears no resemblance to any form or real life, and is all the better for it. ( )

I started reading this while I was in the middle of a Wodehouse biography, and my frustrations with that book chipped away at my enjoyment of this book. I'm returning it to the library, maybe I'll give it another try in the future.

This is the first Wodehouse novel I ever read. I still have the original 1959 paperback copy (Price: 40 cents) that I found at our house. This was probably in the late 60s. The paperback fell apart at this last reading and the last 20-some pages were read held individually. I later glued them back together, but who knows how long that will last. As back-up, I have the audiobook read by the late great character actor, Jonathan Cecil.
This is an Uncle Fred adventure where he juggles four romances and one caper, the latter being all his fault entirely. To the horror of his nephew Pongo Twistleton, the fifth Earl of Ickenham demonstrates his prowess with a catapult and a brazil nut, de-tophatting the stuffy barrister, Sir Raymond Bastable. It is the day of the Eton and Harrow match, so top hat targets abound. Uncle Fred's excuse is that this will make his old friend Bastable into a better person. Later when he runs into Bastable at the match, his airy banter causes the barrister to write a bishop-condemnable pot-boiler of a novel and the plot cheerfully descends into the sort of chaos only the Earl of Ickenham can cause and yet unravel.
Great characters, if mostly from central casting: rabbity middle-aged woman, eccentric elderly man, gormless young man, hard-boiled American crooks - the usual Wodehouse stock. But it's the way he does it, the language.
As for the audiobook, Cecil does a great job.

4.5* for this audiobook edition narrated by Jonathan Cecil

This 3rd book in the Uncle Fred series was hilarious! His nephew Pongo Twisleton having been married in the previous book, Lady Ickenham (Uncle Fred's wife) has no choice but to deposit him with his godson Johnny while she is elsewhere (she doesn't trust him on his own, for good reason!). Typical Wodehousian convolutions occur but one aspect of this that stood out for me is the fun Wodehouse has with authors, publishers and critics in this. Sir Raymond 'Beefy' Bastable, a neighbor of Johnny's, is prompted to "write his exposé of the younger generation, a novel so shocking that it caused endless repercussions for its hapless author, sparked off a whole series of outrageous misunderstandings, and required the inventive talents of Lord Ickenham himself to resolve." as the blurb puts it. I can easily imagine Wodehouse venting some of his own frustrations with writing & publishing in some of the comments. ( )