Well what can I say? Never read any P.G. Wodehouse or a Jeeves story before because there seemed absolutely no need.I'd hate them.
Embossed forever on my mind is the Ian Carmichael TV series and sadly that came along when I was of an age not to be impressed by it, so I've written the whole lot off as "not my sort of thing" ever since.
I used to find it all a bit irritating if I'm honest and Bookhound agrees.We were the Monty Python generation and anything lacking a dead parrot/dead bishop on the landing fell by the wayside.
But it's niggled and couldn't be dismissed on such flimsy evidence because so many rate P.G. Wodehouse's writing highly.
So my challenge for the Endsleigh Humorous themed evening last night was dictated by a gap to be filled.
But was I just a teensy bit slightly influenced by a complete set of the Everyman Wodehouse series on the shelves of the hotel library? They looked delicious, how could I not even attempt to savour the contents?
These books are a treasure; everything you'd expect from Everyman but in a perfectly compact size and with cover artwork that completely nails the book as one you want to love.It's that reading placebo effect.
Thus, discerning as ever here, my first pick was based solely on the cover. At least it'll look pretty even if I hate it, plus I quite thought it wouldn't matter where I started, they'd all sound the same and I probably wouldn't read more than one.
I started with Wodehouse's introduction and, hold on a minute, I was chuckling already.
Then into the first story and my inner smile was beaming away with even a bit of laugh out loud. It's the stuff of bags of flour on tops of doors and lancing hot water bottles with a darning needle on a long stick and I see any non-PGW fans sitting there looking decidedly unimpressed.But as always it's the way he tells it.
These are serotonin-enhancing reading Prozac and should be available on NHS prescription.I reckon a stat dose daily would make the perfect antidote to that bout of Post-Christmas Induced Seasonal Affective Disorder. We could reduce the prescribing budget by a few noughts at least.
In fact I'd be so bold as to say we could then ditch all these cardiac disease management clinics because the evidence for what we all know is already out there, laughter really is the best medicine.
Just think, people would have lovely books to show for it and here's the best bit, they could read them again.
As the days have gone by I've laughed more and more, looked forward to picking the book up for my daily dose, upped it to bd (twice)or tdr (thrice) as necessary and with only 11 stories in this volume of course I've had to buy a few more.It'll be at least February before I need a repeat prescription.
What a lovely discovery after all this time but I'm going to want the whole set I know it.
Recent Comments