Much of the 2nd half of the book revolves around a running joke of one of the characters “blacking up” and getting into all sorts of scrapes. Written in the 1930s, there are racial epithets used here that were taken as norm, which I am loathed to put into writing myself and, if I were to use them in the workplace, I might well find myself unemployed. Old friends and old loves bounce around his world (or rather, he bounces around theirs) in a delightfully comic fashion.Ī reasonable review cannot pass over one very uncomfortable fact about the book. The story then transfers to a coastal area, where Jeeves decides to rent a house and obtain the services of a new valet.įrom here on, there are a series of farcical episodes that befall Bertie and thwart his every plan. This has also prompted a number of complaints from Wooster’s neighbours, but being a stubborn old so-and-so, he decides not to abandon the instrument, but instead to abandon his home. That particular opening sees Jeeves hand in his notice (that’s hardly a spoiler, it’s the first chapter) over the matter of Wooster playing a banjolele very badly.

So I certainly came to the book with those two forming my mental image, as the book opens with a duologue between the two. One of the odd things about Wodehouse is that even if you haven’t read him, you are likely to have heard of Jeeves & Wooster or even seen a few episodes of the television programme that was made starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the title roles. So it seemed that Thank You, Jeeves was the appropriate place to start. It seemed only right to start at the beginning, only there is some ambiguity over precisely where to start, for the characters of Jeeves & Wooster made some early appearances in Wodehouse’s short stories, but I was hoping to read a novel. Yet I have, thus far in 31+ years on this planet, never before read any of his works.

Wodehouse is one of those writers that almost everyone has heard of, quite a few have read and who garners a loyal following. After having finished Theology of Hope, I was in dire need of a light read.

Thanks jeeves