Blandings Castle and Elsewhere

Aug 2, 2025 4:01 AM

Author:P.G. Wodehouse

‘I love his writing, it’s so clever and funny, so deft.' Alan Titchmarsh’s 6 Best Books choice (Daily Express)

A Blandings collection

The ivied walls of Blandings Castle have seldom glowed as sunnily as in these wonderful stories - but there are snakes in the rolling parkland ready to nip Clarence, the absent-minded Ninth Earl of Emsworth, when he least expects it.

For a start the Empress of Blandings, in the running for her first prize in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show, is off her food - and can only be coaxed back to the trough by a call in her own language. Then there is the feud with Head Gardener McAllister, aided by Clarence's sister, the terrifying Lady Constance, and the horrible prospect of the summer fête - twin problems solved by the arrival of a delightfully rebellious little girl from London. But first of all there is the vexed matter of the custody of the pumpkin.

Skipping an ocean and a continent, Wodehouse also treats us to some unputdownable stories of excess from the monstrous Golden Age of Hollywood.

Reviews

It's dangerous to use the word genius to describe a writer, but I'll risk it with him

—— John Humphrys

For as long as I'm immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it's possible to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one where happy endings are the order of the day

—— Marian Keyes

Wodehouse always lifts your spirits, no matter how high they happen to be already

—— Lynne Truss

The incomparable and timeless genius - perfect for readers of all ages, shapes and sizes!

—— Kate Mosse

Not only the funniest English novelist who ever wrote but one of our finest stylists

—— Susan Hill

P.G. Wodehouse remains the greatest chronicler of a certain kind of Englishness, that no one else has ever captured quite so sharply, or with quite as much wit and affection

—— Julian Fellowes

A genius ... Elusive, delicate but lasting

—— Alan Ayckbourn

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis