Name	Midford Castle
Location town	Midford, Somerset
Location country	England
Architect	John Carter
Client	Henry Disney Roebuck
Completion date	1775
Style	Gothic
Size	}}

Midford Castle is a folly castle in the village of Midford, and the parish of Southstoke south of Bath, Somerset, England.

The castle was built in 1775 for Henry Disney Roebuck from designs by John Carter in the shape of the "clubs" symbol used in playing cards (♣). It has been suggested, originally in a magazine article in 1899, that he asked for the clubs design to represent an ace of clubs because he had obtained the money for the castle from gambling on a card game, however this is unlikely, as the porch which creates the "stem" of the symbol was added later. It is more likely that the layout was taken from an article which had been published in Builder’s Magazine in 1774. The house has a sub triangular or trefoil plan formed by 3 semi-circular towers conjoined in a gothic style. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.

In 1810, the castle was bought by one of the Conollys of Castletown House in County Kildare, who added the porch (said to give the clubs symbol its stalk) and built the nearby stables and chapel, known as the priory. The latter fell into disrepair after the last of the Conollys sold the house in 1901.

Soon after 1810 Kingham Field, which was part of the estate, was operating as a stone quarry similar to the nearby Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines. William Smith, who became known as "Father of English Geology", proposed conveying the stone by a railway down, to Tucking Mill where it would be sawn by machinery, and then loaded on to canal barges and transported via the Somerset Coal Canal and the Kennet and Avon Canal to Bath and London. In April 1814, Smith mortgaged the remainder of his estate to Charles Conolly who then controlled the railway and probably extended it to his Vinegar Down Quarry. The scheme failed and in 1819 Conolly had Smith committed to the King's Bench Prison for debt and took over the sawmill and Smith's house at Tucking Mill.

Michael Briggs and his wife Isabel (better known by her pen name of Isabel Colegate) bought Midford in 1961 and carried out extensive renovation work; which included incorporating the chapel into the garden as a picturesque ruin.

In July 2007, the castle was sold to actor Nicolas Cage for £5 million. Cage sold the castle in 2009.

References

External links

Property details from Humberts Estate Agents (includes floor plans)

Category:Castles in Somerset Category:Buildings and structures in Bath and North East Somerset Category:Grade I listed buildings in Somerset Category:1775 architecture Category:Folly castles in England Category:Country houses in Somerset

Midford is a village approximately miles south south east of Bath, Somerset, England within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Although a relatively small hamlet, it extends over 2 counties (Wiltshire and Somerset), is part of two unitary authorities (Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset) and is part of five parishes (Southstoke, Hinton Charterhouse, Wellow, Freshford and Limpley Stoke). Most of the residents reside in the parish of Southstoke and are part of the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority.

The Cam and Wellow Brooks merge in Midford to form the Midford Brook, which then flows down to join the River Avon close to the village of Monkton Combe. The houses & cottages of the village are spread over the gentle valleys of these brooks, which were known as the Valley of the Nightingales in the 1970s but sadly their song is rarely heard nowadays.

Railways and canal

In the village, straddling the B3110 road, is the former viaduct of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and close by are the remains of a lesser viaduct that once carried the Somerset Coal Canal, and later the Great Western branch line from Limpley Stoke to Camerton. Midford railway station served the village until 1966. It is now on the route of NCR 24, the Colliers Way.

For about four years from 1911 to 1915, Midford had a second railway station: Midford Halt railway station on the Limpley Stoke to Camerton railway that followed the former Somerset Coal Canal. At Camerton it made an end-on junction with a branch from Hallatrow on the former Bristol & North Somerset Railway. The line was open to passenger traffic for only seven years in all, from 1910 to 1915, and from 1923 to 1925. Midford Halt opened a year late and then did not reopen for the second period. Midford Halt was in Wiltshire; the county boundary runs up to the B3110 road at the point where the canal/railway crossed the road, and the halt was on the Wiltshire side.

Places of interest

On the hillside above Midford is Midford Castle, a late 18th-century folly castle built in the shape of the ace of clubs (♣). The castle was built in 1775 by Henry Disney Roebuck. It was owned by the Briggs family who spent 45 years restoring the castle, before its sale in July 2007, to actor Nicolas Cage for £5 million.

To the west of the village is upper Midford, here in 1995 plans were made to create a new plantation to be known as Millenium Wood. In 2000 land between Midford, Southstoke, and Combe Hay was prepared and planted with a variety of native trees and shrubs. This area of outstanding natural beauty is open to the public at all year round and is criss crossed with public footpaths. The site overlooks the Cam brook and the restored remains of the Somerset Coal Canal and the 40ft high viaduct that carried the Somerset & Dorset Railway line across the valley in 1908.

Returning to the east towards Midford village along the old rerstored canal bed towpath is the Packhorse bridge, now closed to foot traffic but still intact. Further along the towpath is the fully restored Midford Aqueduct. A lottery grant and other funding was made available to local volunteers and building professionals who completed the work in 2001 at a cost of £1,000,000. It was the most substantial single structure built in the late 18th century Somerset coal canal project and was originally officially opened in 1803. The railway lines that meet and cross over each other in the village were the site of the opening scene in a classic 1950's British comedy film called the Titfield Thunderbolt, and much of the countryside surrouinding the village was the backdrop for many subsequent scenes.

Transport links

Midford is to become one of the starting points for a new project by Sustrans ''(sustainable transport)'' organisation which will link an existing cycle route forward into the City of Bath via the Two Tunnels Greenway. The project, when completed will re-open both the old Devonshire and Claverton railway tunnels to make the new link.

Local amenities

There is one public house in the village: the ''Hope and Anchor'' which is on the main road leading into the village, and adjacent to the railway bridge and cycle path route.

References

Further reading

Somerset Railway Stations, by Mike Oakley. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press (2002)

Wiltshire Railway Stations, by Mike Oakley. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press

External links

Some photos of the viaducts etc.

Category:Villages in Bath and North East Somerset

pl:Midford

character name	The Punisher
converted	y
publisher	Marvel Comics
debut	''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February 1974)
creators	Gerry ConwayRoss AndruJohn Romita, Sr.
full name	Frank Castle
aliases	Mr. SmithCharles FortFrank RookJohnny TowerFrankencastle
powers	Tactical expertHighly trained in armed and unarmed combatDemolitions expertPeak human physical conditionExceptionally high pain tolerance
cat	super
subcat	Marvel Comics
hero	y
sortkey	Punisher }}

The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a fictional character, an anti-hero appearing in comic books based in the . Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr., and Ross Andru, the character made its first appearance in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February 1974).

The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture in his war on crime. Driven by the deaths of his wife and two kids, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a gangland execution in New York City's Central Park, the Punisher wages a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of conventional war weaponry. His family's killers were the first to be slain. A war veteran, Castle is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, guerrilla warfare, and a wide variety of weapons.

The Punisher's brutal nature and willingness to kill made him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. By the late 1980s, he was part of a wave of psychologically troubled antiheroes and was featured in several monthly publications, including ''The Punisher War Journal'', ''The Punisher War Zone'', and ''The Punisher Armory''. Despite his violent actions and dark nature, the Punisher has enjoyed some mainstream success (although toned down) on television, making guest appearances on ''Spider-Man: The Animated Series'' and even ''The Super Hero Squad Show''. In feature films, Dolph Lundgren portrayed the Punisher in 1989, as did Thomas Jane in 2004, and Ray Stevenson in 2008.

Publication history

First appearance

The Punisher was conceived of by Gerry Conway, writer of ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', who helped design the character's distinctive costume:

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Conway had drawn a character with a small death's head skull on one breast. Marvel art director John Romita, Sr., took the basic design, blew the skull up to huge size, taking up most of the character's chest, and added a cartridge bandolier that formed the skull's teeth. ''Amazing Spider-Man'' penciller Ross Andru was the first artist to draw the character for publication.

Appearing for the first time in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February 1974), the Punisher was initially an antagonist of the titular hero. He was a bloodthirsty vigilante who had no qualms about killing gangsters, something that most superheroes of the time refrained from doing. J. Jonah Jameson described him as "the most newsworthy thing to happen to New York since Boss Tweed." In this appearance, the Punisher was determined to kill Spider-Man, who was wanted for the apparent murder of Norman Osborn. This version of the Punisher was shown as an athletic fighter, a master marksman, and an able strategist. All he would reveal about himself was that he was a former U.S. Marine. He had a fierce temper but also showed signs of considerable frustration over his self-appointed role of killer vigilante. In particular, he was engaged in extensive soul-searching as to what was the right thing to do: although he had few qualms about killing he was outraged when his then-associate, the Jackal, apparently killed Spider-Man by treacherous means rather than in honorable combat. Spider-Man, who was himself no stranger to such torment, concluded that the Punisher's problems made his own seem like a "birthday party."

The character was a hit with readers and started to appear on a regular basis, teaming up with both Spider-Man and other heroes such as Captain America and Nightcrawler throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. During his acclaimed run on ''Daredevil'', writer and artist Frank Miller made use of the character, contrasting his attitudes and version of vigilante action to that of the more liberal Man Without Fear.

Initial series

In the early 1980s, artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant proposed creating a Punisher series. Marvel published a miniseries whose premiere (January 1986) was bannered on the cover as the first of four; however, the series had always been intended to be five issues long, and the banner was an error that recurred throughout the entire run. An important element of the story was a retcon that explains that many of the Punisher's more extreme actions to this point were the result of being poisoned with mind-altering drugs.

An ongoing series, also titled ''The Punisher'', premiered the next year. Initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, it eventually ran 104 issues (July 1987 – July 1995) and spun off two additional ongoing series — ''The Punisher War Journal'' (80 issues, November 1988 – July 1995) and ''The Punisher War Zone'' (41 issues, March 1992 – July 1995), as well as the black-and-white comics magazine ''The Punisher Magazine'' (16 issues, November 1989 – September 1990) and ''The Punisher Armory'' (10 issues, no cover dates, starting 1990), a fictional diary detailing "His thoughts! His feelings! His weapons!" (as stated on the cover of issue #1). The Punisher also appeared in numerous one-shots and miniseries, and made frequent guest appearances in other Marvel comics, ranging from superhero series to the Vietnam War-era comic ''The 'Nam''.

During this era, the Punisher was assisted by his then-partner, Microchip. Serving as a Q type figure, he would supply the Punisher with high-tech vehicles and equipment such as armored combat "battle vans" specially built and customized.

Over the next decade, the Punisher would be shown fighting virtually every known criminal organization including the Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Chinese Triads, Jamaican Yardies, the Irish Mob, biker gangs, street gangs, gunrunning militias, muggers, killers, rapists, psychopaths, violent racists, sadists, pedophiles, and corrupt city officials. He also assaults criminal business enterprises such as drugs, weapons smuggling, money laundering, and human trafficking.

Due to the Punisher's homicidal nature, few of his foes became recurring antagonists, the most notable of these being the severely scarred enforcer Jigsaw. The Punisher also acquired an arch-nemesis in the form of the Kingpin, a longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe, and developed enmity with Daredevil himself, who likewise abhorred and fought against the Punisher's brutal methods. Villains such as the Jackal, Bushwacker, Doctor Doom, The Reavers and Bullseye would be used to provide more of a challenge for the character. In addition, heroes such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, the Hulk, Wolverine, Nick Fury, and Moon Knight would appear. Often the stories would use the appearance of those heroes to provide commentary on the difference between the Punisher and those more colourful characters. During Don Daley's run on ''The Punisher'' title, his version of justice was described by the editor as "an eye for an eye."

Decline

In 1995, Marvel canceled all three ongoing Punisher series due to poor sales. The publisher attempted a re-launch almost immediately, with a new ongoing series ''Punisher'', under the new Marvel Edge imprint, by writer John Ostrander, in which the Punisher willingly joined and became the boss of an organized crime family, and later confronted the X-Men and Nick Fury. The series ran for 18 issues, from November 1995 to April 1997. Writer Christopher Golden's four-issue Marvel Knights miniseries ''The Punisher: Purgatory'' (November 1998 – February 1999) posited a deceased Punisher resurrected as a supernatural agent of various angels and demons. This version of the character also appeared in a 4-issue mini-series co-starring Wolverine.

Revivals

A 12-issue miniseries by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, again titled ''The Punisher'' (April 2000 – March 2001), under the Marvel Knights imprint, revived the character's popularity. An ongoing series (37 issues, August 2001 – February 2004), primarily by Ennis and Dillon, followed, succeeded in 2004 by an ongoing Ennis series under Marvel's mature-readers imprint, MAX. Returning the character to his lone vigilante roots, those series combined crime focused stories with black humor. The look of the Punisher was modified further removing the white gloves and pairing his traditional skull imprinted shirt with combat trousers, black combat boots and a black trench coat. Castle has used this costume on occasion in mid-2000s stories before ''The Punisher War Journal'' vol. 2.

MAX imprint

Continuing his run on the character, Garth Ennis used the freedom of the MAX imprint to write more realistic and hard-edged stories than had previously been seen. Ennis has stated that he would "like to see less superheroes"; this desire is reflected in the gritty, realistic tone and the anti-heroic portrayals of both the title character and Nick Fury, who made two guest appearances to the series. ''Punisher'' also made it explicit that Castle's timeline was fixed, while Marvel adjusted those of its other characters, with his history never altered or moved up in time. Promotional art for the cover of ''Punisher'' vol. 6, #44 (March 2007), gave his birth date as February 16, 1950, but that was removed for the published issues. After the departure of Ennis as writer, the series was renamed ''Punisher: Frank Castle'' with issue #66.

The imprint depicts the Punisher being active for almost 30 years, with ''Punisher'' vol. 6, #19 (June 2005), specifying he had killed approximately 2,000 people. Whereas the traditional Punisher stories remained within the United States and involved antagonists and settings of conventional domestic crime, stories of the MAX Punisher often focus on current events, ranging from corporate fraud to sexual slavery and the War on Terror. Many characters are past or current intelligence and military operatives from governmental agencies like the CIA, KGB, Secret Intelligence Service, SAS, militaries and militias from the Balkans and Middle East, also including the IRA, all with agendas rooted in past conflicts like the Cold War or the Yugoslav wars.

The miniseries ''Born'' by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson further examines Castle's roots, tracing them back to his third tour of the Vietnam War, where he undergoes a psychological and possibly supernatural transformation into the Punisher to survive a massive assault on his fortification by the combined forces of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. The one-shot ''Punisher: The Tyger'', by Ennis and John Severin, went even further and showed that Castle had lived with murders, deaths and criminals from his childhood.

''Punisher War Journal'' (vol. 2)

In November 2006, a new ''The Punisher War Journal'' series, written by Matt Fraction and penciled by Ariel Olivetti, was released. The first three issues of the book are set during Marvel's "Civil War" event. It involves Castle taking on supervillains rather than his traditional non-super-powered criminal antagonists. He has also made appearances in the main ''Civil War'' series (issues #5-7). Wearing both his traditional costume and his Marvel Knights/MAX attire, and a new costume designed to look like his costume and Captain America's combined, the series pitted the character against a series of super-powered foes while also being involved in crossover events such as "World War Hulk" and "Secret Invasion".

''The Punisher'' and ''Punisher: Frank Castle''

Marvel relaunched ''The Punisher War Journal'' in 2009 as simply ''Punisher'', with a thematic link tied to the events of the "Dark Reign" storyline and, following the departure of writer Garth Ennis, retitled the Marvel MAX series (formerly ''Punisher MAX'') as ''Punisher: Frank Castle MAX'' and, more recently, as ''Punisher: Frank Castle'' or ''Frank Castle: The Punisher'' (depending on the source); launching a new series called ''PunisherMAX'' by Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon. As part of his work on the character, Rick Remender wrote the one-shot title ''Dark Reign: The List - Punisher'', which, as part of the "Dark Reign" storyline, shows the character dismembered and decapitated by Daken.

Following this, the main ''Punisher'' series was renamed ''FrankenCastle'' and featured a Castle who is resurrected by Morbius and the Legion of Monsters as a patchwork Frankenstein-like creature. He joins up with the Legion of Monsters to help protect the monsters of Monster Metropolis from the Hunter of Monster Special Force. At the conclusion of the series, the character was transformed back into a normal human through use of the namesake of Ulysses Bloodstone, the Bloodstone having healed his injuries and providing him with an increased healing factor as long as he kept it, only for Castle to discard it when the Legion of Monsters revealed that it was clouding his judgement, prompting him to consider shooting those who ''might'' commit a crime rather than killing the guilty and thus risking him losing the only thing that separated him from the criminals he hunted.

''Punisher: In the Blood''

In 2010, a Punisher series was released titled ''Punisher: In the Blood''. It is a five part series that is meant to take place after ''FrankenCastle''. In this series, the Punisher faces the JigSaws once again.

Characterization

The character has been described as being obsessed with vengeance; Garth Ennis noted that the character of the Punisher "sees the world in very black and white terms, he solves his problems with utter finality" and that "his response to any problem: when in doubt, hit back hard." The writer Steven Grant notes that: }}

Powers, weapons, and abilities

Punisher is the recipient of multi-disciplinary military training from the U.S. Marine Corps. While a Marine, he also received training from the U.S. Army and Navy as well as cross-training with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment during the Vietnam War. In addition, since beginning his work as the Punisher, Castle has used his military discipline and training techniques to update and expand his skills in areas that aid in his mission (disguise, acting, use of non-military weapons, etc.). From this training, Punisher is proficient in not only basic infantry skills, but in special operations, which includes the use and maintenance of specialized firearms and explosive ordnance. He is highly trained in infiltration into heavily-guarded enemy territories and structures for the purpose of assassination, capture, and military intelligence. Also, he is trained in various forms of camouflage and stealth. He is also highly adept at hand to hand combat, and has been trained in multiple forms of martial arts.

Both Nick Fury and Tony Stark have commented on how extraordinarily high his pain tolerance is. He does not take even over-the-counter painkillers, as he feels that their benefit of dulling pain is not worth the side effects of drowsiness and slowed reflexes.

He maintains multiple safehouses and vehicles around the greater Manhattan area as well as multiple forged identities and bank accounts (most of the funds and equipment aiding him in his work being taken from the criminals he hunts).

The Punisher has a Kevlar uniform which protects him from most gunfire, though he can still suffer concussive injury or penetration from sufficient or repeated impacts. The bright white skull in his chest is used both to intimidate his enemies and to lure their fire to the more heavily protected area of his armor. The design was supposedly taken from a Vietcong sniper he fought against during the Vietnam War.

The Punisher has been using technology derived from super-villains and other costumed characters, such as the Green Goblin's pumpkin bombs, a modified Goblin Glider, and a Doctor Octopus tentacle that he can shrink down for easy storage via Pym Particles.

Reception

The Punisher was named the 19th Greatest Comic Book Character of All Time by movie magazine ''Empire'', saying that he is the "grimmest and most compelling of characters" and praising the ''Punisher MAX'' series.

Supporting characters

Despite wanting to work alone, the Punisher has a few supporting characters to help fight crime. Microchip assisted Castle by building and supplying weapons and technology and providing friendship. During the "Civil War", he was aided by Stuart Clarke for a short time. Various police officers and detectives have assisted the Punisher, most notably Lynn Michaels and Lt. Martin Soap. Lynn Michaels was a police officer who teamed up with Castle to take down a serial rapist and later quit the force to become a vigilante. Martin Soap was secretly allied with the Punisher and gave him information on his targets from the police database.

Other versions

In other media

The character of the Punisher has appeared in many types of media. Since his first appearance in 1974, he has appeared in television, movies, and video games — each on multiple occasions — and his name, symbol, and image have appeared on products and merchandise.

References

External links

Category:Comics characters introduced in 1974 Category:Characters created by Gerry Conway Category:Characters created by John Romita, Sr. Category:Characters created by Ross Andru Category:Comics adapted into films Category:Crime comics Category:Fictional American people of Italian descent Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Fictional cyborgs Category:Fictional mass murderers Category:Fictional serial killers Category:Fictional soldiers Category:Fictional special forces personnel Category:Fictional undead Category:Fictional United States Marines Category:Fictional Vietnam War veterans Category:Fictional vigilantes Category:Film characters Category:Marvel Comics martial artists

de:Punisher el:Τιμωρός es:Punisher fr:Le Punisher id:Punisher it:Punitore he:המעניש hu:Megtorló nl:Punisher ja:パニッシャー pl:Punisher pt:Punisher ro:Punisher ru:Каратель sq:Punisher fi:Tuomari (sarjakuvahahmo) sv:Punisher tr:Punisher zh:懲罰者

{{infobox writer | name

SirPelham Grenville WodehouseKBE | image PGWodehouse.jpg | imagesize 200px | caption Wodehouse in 1904 (aged 23). | pseudonym Henry William-JonesP Brooke-HavenPelham GrenvilleMelrose GraingerJ Walker WilliamsC P West | birth_date October 15, 1881 | birth_place Guildford, Surrey, England, UK | death_date February 14, 1975 | death_place Southampton, New York, U.S. | occupation novelist, playwright and lyricist | nationality British United States (naturalized in 1955, aged 74) | period 1902–75 | genre comedy, romantic comedy | influenced Diana Gabaldon }}

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be widely read. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of pre-war English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by modern writers such as Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams, Zadie Smith, J.K. Rowling, and Terry Pratchett. Journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens commented, "there is not, and never will be, anything to touch him".

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of 15 plays and of 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies, many of them produced in collaboration with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical ''Anything Goes'' (1934), wrote the lyrics for the hit song "Bill" in Kern's ''Show Boat'' (1927), wrote lyrics to Sigmund Romberg's music for the Gershwin – Romberg musical ''Rosalie'' (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of ''The Three Musketeers'' (1928). He is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Early life

Wodehouse, called "Plum" by most family and friends, was born prematurely to Eleanor Wodehouse (née Deane; daughter of John Bathurst Deane) while she was visiting Guildford. He was baptised at St. Nicolas' Church, Guildford. His aunt Mary Deane was the author of the novel ''Mr. Zinzan of Bath; or, Seen in an Old Mirror''. His father, Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845–1929), was a British judge in Hong Kong. The Wodehouse family had been settled in Norfolk for many centuries. Wodehouse's great-grandfather Reverend Philip Wodehouse was the second son of Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet, whose eldest son John Wodehouse, 1st Baron Wodehouse, was the ancestor of the Earls of Kimberley. His godfather was Pelham von Donop, after whom he was named.

When he was just three years old, Wodehouse was brought back to England and placed in the care of a nanny. He attended various boarding schools and, between the ages of three and 15 years, saw his parents for barely six months in total. Wodehouse grew very close to his brother, who shared his love for art. Wodehouse filled the voids in his life by writing relentlessly. He spent quite a few of his school holidays with one aunt or another; it has been speculated that this gave him a healthy horror of the "gaggle of aunts", reflected in Bertie Wooster's formidable aunts Agatha and Dahlia, as well as Lady Constance Keeble's tyranny over her many nieces and nephews in the Blandings Castle series.

Wodehouse's first school was The Chalet School, Croydon (now Elmhurst School for Boys), which he attended between 1886 and 1889, together with his two older brothers. (Richard, the youngest of the four Wodehouse brothers, was much younger and became somewhat noteworthy as a cricketer in Asia.) In 1889, the oldest brother, Peveril, was diagnosed as having a weak chest, and the three brothers were sent to Elizabeth College, Guernsey, where Peveril could benefit from the sea air. Wodehouse remained at Elizabeth College for two years, until, at age 10, it became time for him to move to a preparatory school. Wodehouse's first prep school was Malvern House, at Kearsney, near Dover, which specialised in preparing boys for entry to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Wodehouse spent two unhappy years at Malvern House before finally persuading his father to send him to Dulwich College, where his elder brother Armine was already a student.

He enjoyed attending Dulwich College, where he was successful both as a student and as a sportsman: he was a member of the Classics VIth Form (traditionally, the preserve of the brightest students) and a School prefect, he edited the college magazine, ''The Alleynian'', sang and acted leading roles in musical and theatrical productions, and gained his school colours as a member of the cricket First XI and rugby football First XV; he also represented the school at boxing (until barred by poor eyesight) and his house at athletics. The library at Dulwich is now named after him.

Wodehouse's elder brother, Armine, had won a classics scholarship to Oxford University (where he gained a first class degree) and Pelham was widely expected to follow in his brother's footsteps, but a fall in the value of the Indian rupee (in which currency his father's pension was expressed) forced him to abandon such plans. His father found him a position with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (now known as HSBC), where, after two years' training in London, he would have been posted to an overseas branch. However, Wodehouse was never interested in banking as a career and "never learned a thing about banking". (Some of his experiences in the bank were recounted in ''Psmith in the City''.) He wrote part-time while working in the bank, and in 1902 became a journalist with ''The Globe'' (a now defunct newspaper), taking over the comic column from a friend who had resigned.

Wodehouse contributed items to ''Punch'', ''Vanity Fair'' (1903–1906), ''Daily Express'' (1904) and ''The World: A Journal for Men and Women'' (1906/1907). He also wrote stories for schoolboy's magazines (''The Captain'' and ''Public School Magazine'') that were compiled to form his first published novels and four playlets with his friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson. During 1909, Wodehouse stayed in Greenwich Village and "sold two short stories to ''Cosmopolitan'' and ''Collier's'' for a total of $500 – much more than I had ever earned before." He then resigned from ''The Globe'' and stayed in New York, where he became a regular contributor (under a variety of pseudonyms) to the newly-founded ''American Vanity Fair'' (1913). However "the wolf was always at the door", and it was not until ''The Saturday Evening Post'' serialised ''Something New'' in 1915 that he had his "first break". Around this time he began collaborating with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern on (eventually eighteen) musical comedies, including the innovative Princess Theatre musicals.

In 1914, Wodehouse married Ethel Wayman and gained a stepdaughter called Leonora. He had no biological children, and it is possible that he was rendered sterile after contracting mumps as an adolescent.

During the 1930s, he had two brief stints as a screenwriter in Hollywood, where he claimed he was greatly overpaid. Many of his novels were also serialised in magazines such as ''The Saturday Evening Post'' and ''The Strand'', which also paid well.

Life beyond Britain

Although Wodehouse and his novels are considered quintessentially English, from 1914 onward he split his time between England and the United States. In 1934, he took up residence in France, to avoid double taxation on his earnings by the tax authorities in Britain and the U.S. He was also profoundly uninterested in politics and world affairs. When World War II broke out in 1939 he remained at his seaside home in Le Touquet, France, instead of returning to England, apparently failing to recognise the seriousness of the conflict. It is also said that his wife couldn't bear to leave their dog, Wonder. Subsequently the German military authorities in occupied France interned him (along with several other Englishmen in the same position) as an "enemy alien" according to the Geneva Convention. He was interned first in Belgium, then at Tost in Upper Silesia (now Toszek in Poland), of which he is recorded having said, "If this is Upper Silesia, one wonders what Lower Silesia must be like…"

While at Tost, he entertained his fellow prisoners with witty dialogues. He was released from internment when he reached 60, as set down by the Geneva Convention (Wodehouse's version) or because of a deal with the German Ministry of Propaganda. He then proceeded to broadcast through the German radio services and with the full cooperation of the German propaganda services several humoristic autobiographical commentaries as a basis for a series of radio broadcasts aimed at America (then not at war with Germany). He lived then for a time at Hotel Adlon in Berlin and then in Paris (still under German occupation). When the text of his commentaries was published in the UK many years later, several short sentences had been suppressed, probably by Wodehouse himself, for showing him being relatively friendly to the German military when they arrived at Le Touquet. Wodehouse believed he would be admired as showing himself to have "kept a stiff upper lip" during his internment. Wartime England was in no mood for light-hearted banter, however, and the broadcasts led to many accusations of collaborationism with the Germans and even treason. Some libraries banned his books. Foremost among his critics was A. A. Milne, author of the ''Winnie the Pooh'' books; Wodehouse took revenge in a short story parody, ''Rodney Has a Relapse'' (1949), in which a character based on Milne writes about his son, a ridiculous character named "Timothy Bobbin", a clear take on Christopher Robin Milne. Another critic was the playwright Sean O'Casey who, in a letter to ''The Daily Telegraph'' in July 1941, wrote: "If England has any dignity left in the way of literature, she will forget for ever the pitiful antics of English literature's performing flea". Wodehouse deflected the insult by giving the title ''Performing Flea'' to a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend. Among Wodehouse's defenders were Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell. An investigation by the British security service MI5 concluded that Wodehouse was naïve and foolish but not a traitor. Documents declassified in the 1980s revealed that while living in Paris, his living expenses were paid by the Nazis. However, papers released by the British Public Record Office in 1999 showed this had been accounted for by MI5 investigators when establishing Wodehouse's innocence.

The criticism led Wodehouse and his wife to move permanently to New York. Apart from his stepdaughter Leonora, who died during Wodehouse's internment in Germany, they had no children. He became a United States citizen in 1955, spending the remainder of his life in Remsenburg, New York, never to visit his homeland again.

Later life

He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1975 New Year Honours, six weeks before his death at age 93.

It is widely believed that the honour was not given earlier because of lingering resentment about the German broadcasts. In a BBC interview shortly before his death, Wodehouse said that he had no ambitions left as he had been knighted and created as a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's. His doctor advised him not to travel to London for the investiture; his wife later received the award on his behalf from the British consul.

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, given annually for the finest example of comic writing in the UK, was established and named in his honour in 2000.

Writing style

Wodehouse took a modest attitude to his own works. In ''Over Seventy'' (1957) he wrote: "I go in for what is known in the trade as 'light writing' and those who do that – humorists they are sometimes called – are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at."

However, he also lightly taunted his critics, as in the introduction to ''Summer Lightning''. :"A certain critic—for such men, I regret to say, do exist—made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names'. He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha; but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against ''Summer Lightning''. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy."

His writing style is notable for its unique blend of contemporary London clubroom slang with elegant, classically-informed drawing-room English; for example: :"I once got engaged to his daughter Honoria, a ghastly dynamic exhibit who read Nietzsche and had a laugh like waves breaking on a stern and rockbound coast."

Literary tastes and influence

In the above-mentioned article, Wodehouse names some contemporary humorists whom he held in high regard. These include Frank Sullivan, A. P. Herbert, W. S. Gilbert and Alex Atkinson. Two essays in ''Tales of St. Austin’s'' satirise modern literary criticism: "The Tom Brown Question" is a parody of Homeric analysts, and "Notes" criticises both classical and English critics, with an ironic exception for those explicating the meaning of Browning. In "Work", Wodehouse calls the claim that "Virgil is hard" "a shallow falsehood", but notes that "Aeschylus, on the other hand, is a demon". Shakespeare and Tennyson were also obvious influences; their works were the only books Wodehouse took with him in his internment. He frequently quoted Kipling and Omar Khayyam. Wodehouse enjoyed the traditional English thriller: one of his characters declares that "It is impossible not to be thrilled by Edgar Wallace", and he dedicated ''Sam the Sudden'' to Wallace, while Agatha Christie dedicated her ''Hallowe'en Party'' "To P G Wodehouse — whose books and stories have brightened my life for many years. Also, to show my pleasure in his having been kind enough to tell me he enjoyed ''my'' books." In the 1960s he gave important praise for the debut novels of Gavin Lyall and George MacDonald Fraser. In later life, he read mysteries by Ngaio Marsh and Rex Stout, and unfailingly watched the soap opera ''The Edge of Night''.

Characters

Wodehouse's characters, however, were not always popular with the establishment, notably the foppish foolishness of Bertie Wooster. Papers released by the Public Record Office have disclosed that when Wodehouse was recommended in 1967 for the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sir Patrick Dean, the British ambassador in Washington, argued that it "would also give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which we are doing our best to eradicate."

Wodehouse's characters are often eccentric, with peculiar attachments, such as to pigs (Lord Emsworth), newts (Gussie Fink-Nottle), antique silver (Bertie's Uncle Tom Travers), golf-collectables (numerous characters) or socks (Archibald Mulliner). His "mentally negligible" good-natured characters invariably make their lot worse by their half-witted schemes to improve a bad situation. In many cases the classic eccentricities of Wodehouse's upper class give rise to plot complications. The very first Jeeves story ("Jeeves Takes Charge") concerns an attempt to prevent publication of an old man's memoirs, which contain embarrassing stories about aristocrats and other prestigious persons in their youth.

Relatives, especially aunts and uncles, are commonly depicted with an exaggerated power to help or impede marriage or financial prospects, or simply to make life miserable. (Bertie speaks of "Aunt Agatha getting after [someone] with her hatchet".) Several of the Jeeves stories involve helping a pal deceive a wealthy relative on whom the pal depends financially ("The Aunt and the Sluggard", "Comrade Bingo"). When Bertie Wooster is first introduced ("Jeeves Takes Charge"), he is himself dependent upon his Uncle Willoughby, and only when this uncle ''hands in his dinner pail'' (dies) does Bertram become independently wealthy.

Children of both genders are invariably troublesome, annoying, and malicious. The most egregious is Edwin the Boy Scout, whose attempts at "acts of kindness" cause disasters of widely varying severity in several Jeeves novels and short stories. Friends are often more a trouble than a comfort in Wodehouse stories: Bertie Wooster in particular is often obliged to put himself to trouble, and sometimes to endure considerable suffering, in order to help a friend. (The Code of the Woosters, in the novel of the same name, is "Never let a pal down.") Antagonists (particularly rivals in love) are frequently terrifying and just as often get their comeuppance in a gratifying fashion.

Policemen and magistrates are typically portrayed as threatening, yet easy to fool, often through the simple expedient of giving a false name. A recurring motif is the theft of policemen's helmets. One of the most dislikable characters in the entire opus is a magistrate, Sir Watkyn Bassett.

In a manner going back to the stock characters of Roman comedy (such as Plautus), Wodehouse's servants are frequently far cleverer than their masters. This is quintessentially true with Jeeves, who always pulls Bertie Wooster out of the direst scrapes by means of cunning and resource, often by deceptively manipulating him (''e.g.'' "Bertie Changes his Mind", ''Right Ho, Jeeves'') or by convincing him to sacrifice himself. It recurs elsewhere, such as with the efficient (though despised) Baxter, secretary to the befogged Lord Emsworth.

Another recurring type is the successful, square-jawed, ruthless American business executive, most notably in ''Thank You, Jeeves'' and in the golf story "The Heel of Achilles" but also in later stories about the Mulliners in Hollywood.

Big bruisers who come and go unexpectedly, muttering threats, abound in Wodehouse, including first and foremost Roderick Spode and Tuppy Glossop but also any number of bookies' henchmen, jealous lovers, nosy neighbours, burglars, and what would now be called animal-rights activists.

Many stories involve a strong-willed, independent, middle-aged (or older) female troublemaker. Examples include Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha; Lord Emsworth's many sisters, notably Lady Constance Keeble; Headmistress Mapleton in "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina"; Lady Bassett in the Mulliner short story "Strychnine in the Soup"; and the poisonous Princess von und zu Dworniczek in ''Summer Moonshine''. Even Aunt Dahlia, the exceptional aunt who is a "good egg", makes plenty of troublesome demands on Bertie. Most abhorrent are the female writers, young and old, such as Ukridge's Aunt Julia, Bertie Wooster's cousin (and sometime fiancée) Florence Craye, and, when the evil fit is upon her, Bingo Little's wife Rosie M. Banks.

Plots

Wodehouse was known for his consummate skill at their detailed construction and development. This did not come immediately to him; in the early Psmith novels ''Psmith in the City'' and ''Psmith, Journalist'', the device by which the author rescues the protagonists from their mounting difficulties is a simple infusion of cash from Psmith's father. This would soon change, and by the 1920s his novels were already showing off his genius for creating multiple layers of comedic complications that the characters must endure to reach the invariable happy ending. Typically, a relative or friend makes some demand that forces a character into a bizarre situation from which it seems impossible to recover, only to resolve itself in a clever and satisfying finale. The layers pile up thickly in the longer works, with a character getting into multiple dangerous situations by mid-story. An outstanding example of this is ''The Code of the Woosters'' where most of the chapters have an essential plot point reversed in the last sentence, catapulting the characters forward into greater diplomatic disasters. A key figure in most Wodehouse stories is a "fixer" whose genius soars above the incompetent blather and crude bluster of most of the other characters, Jeeves being the best known example. Other characters in this vein are Lord Ickenham ("Uncle Fred") and Galahad Threepwood, who perform much the same role in the Blandings Castle stories—though never both at the same time—and Psmith, who does the same thing in the stories that bear his name.

Engagements are a common theme in Wodehouse stories. A man may be unable to become engaged to the woman he loves due to some impediment such as poverty, feelings of inferiority, or a relative's objection. Just as often, a protagonist unwillingly or unwittingly gets engaged to a woman he does not love, and must find some back-door way out other than breaking it off directly (which goes against a gentleman's code of honour and renders him vulnerable to a lawsuit for breach of promise). The most widely-read case in point is Bertie Wooster's engagement to the objectionable Madeline Bassett in ''Right Ho, Jeeves'', which recurs in several subsequent novels.

Impersonations, and resulting confusion, are particularly common in the Blandings books, but also occur in other works. Often the impersonation is discovered, but the impersonator is able to silence the discoverer by means of bribery or blackmail, as in ''Leave it to Psmith'' and ''Uncle Fred in the Springtime''.

Gambling often plays a large role in Wodehouse plots, typically with someone manipulating the outcome of the wager.

Another subject which features strongly in Wodehouse's plots is alcohol, and many plots revolve around the tipsiness of a major character. In ''The Mating Season'', he enumerated what many people consider as the definitive list of hangovers: the Broken Compass, the Sewing Machine, the Comet, the Atomic, the Cement Mixer and the Gremlin Boogie. Furthermore, he makes several references to a drink called the "May Queen", described by Uncle Fred as "any good dry champagne, to which is added brandy, armagnac, kümmel, yellow chartreuse, and old stout, to taste", which inspires several characters to acts of daring, such as proposing to their true loves. Sometimes, other psychoactive substances are featured, for instance in ''Laughing Gas'' and the short story "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo".

Writings

Wodehouse was a prolific author, writing 96 books in his remarkable seventy-three year long career (1902 to 1975). His works include novels, collections of short stories, and musical comedies. Many characters and locations appear repeatedly throughout his short stories and novels, leading readers to classify his work by "series":

The Blandings Castle stories (later dubbed "the Blandings Castle Saga" by Wodehouse), about the upper-class inhabitants of the fictional rural Blandings Castle. Includes the eccentric Lord Emsworth, obsessed by his prize-winning pig, the "Empress of Blandings", and at one point by his equally prize-winning pumpkin ("Hope of Blandings", but, mockingly, "Percy" to Emsworth's unappreciative second son Freddie Threepwood).

The Drones Club stories, about the mishaps of certain members of a raucous social club for London's idle rich. Drones Club stories always involve unnamed club members known as "Eggs", "Beans" and "Crumpets" (after the habit of addressing each other as "old egg", "old bean" or "old crumpet"); in each story, a well-informed Crumpet will endeavour to tell an Egg or Bean of the latest exploits of another Drones Club member, most frequently Freddie Widgeon or Bingo Little. Also featured are a cast of recurrent bit players such as Club millionaire Oofy Prosser.

The Golf and Oldest Member stories. They are built around one of Wodehouse's passions, the sport of golf, which all characters involved consider the only important pursuit in life. The Oldest Member of the golf course clubhouse tells most of them, usually to unwilling listeners who would prefer to be elsewhere.

The Jeeves and Wooster stories, narrated by the wealthy, scatterbrained Bertie Wooster. A number of stories and novels that recount the improbable and unfortunate situations in which he and his friends find themselves and the manner in which his ingenious valet Jeeves is always able to extricate them. Collectively called "the Jeeves stories", or "Jeeves and Wooster", they are Wodehouse's most famous. The Jeeves stories are a valuable compendium of pre–World War II English slang in use. One of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, "Bertie Changes His Mind" (originally published in 1922) is narrated by Jeeves instead of by Bertie.

The Mr Mulliner stories, narrated by a genial pub raconteur who can take any topic of conversation and turn it into an involved, implausible story about a member of his family. Most of Mr. Mulliner's stories involve one or another of his innumerable nephews. His listeners are always identified solely by their drinks, e.g., a "Hot Scotch and Lemon" or a "Double Whisky and Splash".

The School stories, which launched Wodehouse's career with their comparative realism. They are often located at the fictional public schools of St. Austin's or Wrykyn.

The Psmith stories, about an ingenious jack-of-all-trades with a charming, exaggeratedly refined manner. The final Psmith story, ''Leave it to Psmith'', overlaps the Blandings stories in that Psmith works for Lord Emsworth, lives for a time at Blandings Castle, and becomes a friend of Freddie Threepwood. Psmith first appeared in the school novel Mike.

The Ukridge stories, about the charming but unprincipled Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, always looking to enlarge his income through the reluctant assistance of his friend in his schemes. Besides the short stories, there is one novel about him: ''Love Among the Chickens''.

The Uncle Fred stories, about the eccentric Earl of Ickenham. Whenever he can escape his wife's chaperonage, he likes to spread what he calls "sweetness and light" and others are likely to call chaos. His escapades, always involving impersonations of some sort, are usually told from the viewpoint of his nephew and reluctant companion Reginald "Pongo" Twistleton. Several times he performs his "art" at Blandings Castle.

The stand-alone stories. Stories which are not part of a series (although they may contain overlapping minor characters), such as ''Piccadilly Jim'', ''Quick Service'', ''Summer Moonshine'', ''Sam the Sudden'', and ''Laughing Gas''.

Almost all of these series overlap: Psmith appears in a "School" story and a Blandings novel; Bertie Wooster is a member of the Drones Club; Uncle Fred and Pongo Twistleton appear in both the Blandings Saga and the Drones club stories; Bingo Little is a regular character in the Jeeves Stories and the Drones Club stories, etc.

Adaptations

Considering the extent of his success, there have been comparatively few adaptations of Wodehouse's works. He was reluctant to allow others to adapt the Jeeves stories:

One great advantage in being a historian to a man like Jeeves is that his mere personality prevents one selling one's artistic soul for gold. In recent years I have had lucrative offers for his services from theatrical managers, motion-picture magnates, the proprietors of one or two widely advertised commodities, and even the editor of the comic supplement of an American newspaper, who wanted him for a "comic strip". But, tempting though the terms were, it only needed Jeeves' deprecating cough and his murmured "I would scarcely advocate it, sir," to put the jack under my better nature. Jeeves knows his place, and it is between the covers of a book." (from Wodehouse's introduction to the compilation ''The World of Jeeves'', 1967)

Doing his own adaptations for film did not attract him either. He had been retained by MGM in 1930 but little used: "They paid me $2,000 a week.... Yet apparently they had the greatest difficulty in finding anything for me to do." He returned to MGM in 1937 to work on the screenplay of Rosalie, but even though he was now being paid $2,500 a week and living luxuriously in Hollywood, he said "I'm not enjoying life much just now. I don't like doing pictures."

However, he formed a warm working relationship with Ian Hay, who adapted ''A Damsel in Distress'' as a stage play in 1928, with Hay, Wodehouse and A. A. Milne all investing in the production. Wodehouse and Hay holidayed together in Scotland, finding "a lot of interests in common". Wodehouse went on to help dramatise Hay's story ''Baa Baa Black Sheep'' in 1929, and in 1930 they co-wrote the stage version of ''Leave It to Psmith''.

Wodehouse wrote the screenplay for the musical film ''A Damsel in Distress'' released in 1937, starring Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Joan Fontaine, with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. A 1962 film adaptation of ''The Girl On The Boat'' starred Norman Wisdom, Millicent Martin and Richard Briers.

The Blandings, Jeeves, Ukridge and Mulliner stories have all been adapted for television. The Jeeves series has been adapted for television twice, once in the 1960s (by the BBC), with the title ''The World of Wooster'', starring Ian Carmichael as Bertie Wooster, and Dennis Price as Jeeves, and again in the 1990s (by Granada Television for ITV), with the title ''Jeeves and Wooster'', starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie and Stephen Fry as Jeeves. David Niven and Arthur Treacher also starred as Bertie and Jeeves, respectively, in a short 1930s film that had the title ''Thank You, Jeeves!'', though neither this nor the sequel, ''Step Lively, Jeeves'', also starring Treacher as Jeeves but without Bertie, bears any relation to a Wodehouse story.

In 1975, Andrew Lloyd Webber made a musical, originally titled ''Jeeves''. In 1996, it was rewritten as the more successful ''By Jeeves'', which made it to Broadway, and a performance recorded as a video film, also shown on TV.

A version of ''Heavy Weather'' was filmed by the BBC in 1995 starring Peter O'Toole as Lord Emsworth and Richard Briers, again, as Lord Emsworth's brother, Galahad Threepwood.

''Piccadilly Jim'' was first filmed in 1919, and again in 1936, starring Robert Montgomery. In 2004, Julian Fellowes wrote another screen adaptation which starred Sam Rockwell, but this version was unsuccessful.

There was also a series of BBC adaptations of various short works, mostly from the Mulliner series, under the title of ''Wodehouse Playhouse'' starring John Alderton and Pauline Collins, which aired starting in 1975. The first series was introduced by Wodehouse himself in the last year of his life.

Wodehouse's involvement with film and television from around the world is chronicled in Brian Taves, ''P.G. Wodehouse and Hollywood: Screenwriting, Satires, and Adaptations'' (McFarland, 2006).

Czech author Zdeněk Jirotka based his ''Saturnin'' novel largely on the character of Jeeves.

The FX animated series ''Archer'' has a butler character named Wodehouse, as a tribute to the author.

Major characters

; Major characters of primary importance

Wodehouse's work contains a number of recurring protagonists, narrators and principal characters, including:

Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves; his Aunt Dahlia and his Aunt Agatha

Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle, and his large family

Mr Mulliner, irrepressible pub raconteur of family stories

The Oldest Member, irrepressible nineteenth hole raconteur of golf stories

Psmith, monocled dandy and practical socialist

Ukridge, irrepressible entrepreneur and cheerful opportunist

Uncle Fred (Frederick Cornwallis, Fifth Earl of Ickenham), considered, in some circles, a disgrace to the Peerage. Spreading "sweetness and light" through impersonation

; Major characters of secondary importance Certain of Wodehouse's less central characters are particularly well-known, despite being less critical elements of his works as a whole.

Anatole, French chef extraordinaire, very temperamental

Galahad Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's brother, lifelong bachelor with a mis-spent youth and a kind heart

Sebastian Beach, Lord Emsworth's butler

Rupert Baxter, Lord Emsworth's efficient but annoying secretary

Major Brabazon-Plank, Amazon explorer, afraid of bonnie babies

Sir Roderick Glossop, intimidating psychiatrist

Honoria Glossop, Sir Roderick's daughter and sometime fiancée of Bertie Wooster, demanding, imperious, athletic

Tuppy Glossop, Sir Roderick's nephew, muscular rugby-player

Roderick Spode, later 7th Earl of Sidcup, amateur dictator, very tall and muscular, based on British fascist Oswald Mosley

Pongo Twistleton, Uncle Fred's nephew

Oofy Prosser, millionaire member of the Drones Club

Monty Bodkin, second richest member of the Drones Club (second to Oofy Prosser)

Bingo Little, friend of Bertie Wooster, with a complicated love-life

Sidney McMurdo, big, muscular golfer, inclined to jealousy

Agnes Flack, big, muscular, female golfer

Freddie Widgeon, member of the Drones Club

Gussie Fink-Nottle, fish-faced, socially awkward newt-fancier who cannot hold his liquor

Sir Watkyn Bassett, owner of Totleigh Towers

Madeline Bassett, daughter of Sir Watkyn, very pretty but disturbingly drippy and poetical; often voices conviction that "the stars are God's daisy-chain" and other goofy sentiments

Bobbie Wickham, attractive but ruthless red-haired girl, very demanding and fond of practical jokes

Florence Craye, Bertie Wooster's cousin and sometimes ''fiancee'', and author of the novel ''Spindrift''

Lord Uffenham, owner and butler of Shipley Hall

Mike Jackson, Psmith's steadfast, cricket-playing friend

Archibald Mulliner, sock collector who can mimic a hen laying an egg

; Extremely minor, but ubiquitous, character:

Lord Knubble of Knopp, mentioned in Mulliner stories and Golf Stories and other stories as well; references to him are always so brief and inconsequential that they may not be fully catalogued. Most often mentioned in connection with other characters, without actually appearing. A thin, well-dressed, "horse-faced" man, who occasionally appears at house parties and loses at cards. Very wealthy in spite of this.

Notes

References

External links

; Wodehouse societies

P G Wodehouse Society.org.uk – The P G Wodehouse Society (UK): events, Tony Ring's Information Sheets, quiz

Wodehouse.org – TWS, The Wodehouse Society (North America): events, links to essays

Other Wodehouse Societies (Australia, Belgium, Finland, India, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden)

; Wodehouse info

A Celebration of P G Wodehouse – Annotated bibliography, characters index, text annotations

Biblia Wodehousiana - Inventory of biblical quotations and allusions

"Zeroing in on Blandings" by Alex Kirby, ''BBC News Online'', 4 September 2003 – Blandings Castle located?

; About Wodehouse

1958 BBC interview

"In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse" by George Orwell, 1945 – Defending PGW accused of treason

"What ho! My hero, PG Wodehouse" by Stephen Fry (Jeeves actor), ''The Independent'', 18 January 2000 – Recollections and appreciation

Wodehouse Saved my Life by Hugh Laurie, ''The Daily Telegraph'' 27 May 99

"P. G. Wodehouse interview" by Gerald Clarke, ''The Paris Review'', Winter 1975 (PDF format, 386 kB) PGW's ancestry – parents Henry Ernest Wodehouse and Eleanor Deane, links to ancestors (no PGW ) – grave location and photography

; Online works in the public domain in the United States – about 40 books in English

Works by P. G. Wodehouse at EveryAuthor.com – subset of Gutenberg (about 30 books) but broken by chapters and searchable

"Wodehouse Quotations" – searchable index of quotes from books and articles (OCR, some typos)

Free audiobook of ''A Man of Means'' (1914) at LibriVox (3h, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, ZIP of whole book MP3 86 MB)

Free audiobook of ''Three Men and a Maid (US title)/The Girl on the Boat (UK title)'' (1922) at LibriVox (5h 40m, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, ZIP of whole book MP3 164 MB)

Free audiobook of ''Psmith in the City'' (1910) at LibriVox (5h 48min, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, 168 or 336 MB)

Free audiobook of ''Something New'' (1915) at LibriVox (7h 34min, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, 218 or 436 MB)

Free audiobook of ''Uneasy Money'' (1915) at LibriVox (6h 41min, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, 184 MB)

Transcripts of the five controversial Berlin broadcasts

; Other links Wodehouse-related discussion groups (book of the month, TV series, etc.) at Yahoo! Groups – Blandings (420+ members), WodehouseIndia (220+ members), TheDrones (140+ members), etc.

Wantagh (BBC films segments of a TV special on the life of P.G. Wodehouse)">Filming a Comedy Master's Life in Wantagh (BBC films segments of a TV special on the life of P.G. Wodehouse)

Category:1881 births Category:1975 deaths Category:P. G. Wodehouse * Category:Disease-related deaths in New York Category:English novelists Category:English humorists Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Old Alleynians Category:World War II civilian prisoners Category:People from Guildford Category:People from Long Island Category:19th-century English people P. G. Wodehouse Category:English lyricists Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:English musical theatre lyricists

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