Look, it wasn’t a Blandings or Jeeves novel and it wasn’t hysterically funny, but it was written by Wodehouse. And a ‘it was alright’ Wodehouse is still wonderfully written with wit and wumour.
(Sorry. I was trying to keep the ‘w”s going.)
BACHELORS ANONYMOUS
by P. G. Wodehouse
So. There’s this bloke, Ivor Llewellyn. He has a problem. He’s just become a bachelor for the sixth time.
Yes. You’ve read that right – he’s been in the blissful wedded state no less than five times.
The fault lies in his small talk. He’s terrible at it. When out at dinner with a female, he finds himself proposing over coffee:
“Coffee’s the danger spot. There is a pause in the conversation.”
… “It’s put me off coffee for life”
His lawyer, Mr. Trout – a member of Bachelors Anonymous (inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous), belatedly follows Llewellyn to London. Llewellyn who is frantically dodging the clutches of the actress, Vera Dalrymple. Of whom this can be said:
‘Tell me,” she went on, as the door closed behind them, “what do you think of that gifted artiste? Off the record. Just between you and me.”
It was a question which Joe was well prepared to answer. He did so with the minimum of hesitation.
“Let’s say that I think it possible her mother may love her.”
(The way Wodehouse writes … ah! It makes me laugh. You’re reading along nicely and then all of a sudden BOOM! a hilarious turn of phrase and you’re choking with laughter.)
Joe Pickering, bodyguard-of-Llewellyn’s-bachelor-state, and Sally Finch, heir-to-a-fortune-if-she-doesn’t-smoke, are attempting to fall in love, but are consistently foiled by hijinks; fate attempts to throw them together, Mr. Trout tries to wrench them apart – for Joe’s own good, of course.
“Like so many young men,” said Mr Trout, “you have allowed yourself to be ensnared by a pretty face, never asking yourself if the person you are hoping to marry is capable of making out your income tax return and can be relied on to shovel snow while you are curled up beside the fire with a novel of suspense.”
… is that the criteria for being a good wife nowadays?
Oh.
Oh dear.
I shovelled snow once. But tax returns?
There is a chase scene, done in a Wodehousian fashion …
“Follow that car!”
The driver was a stout man with a walrus moustache, not that that matters, who when given instructions like them to be quite clear, with no margin for error. He said:
“What car?”
… and an astounding change of heart by Mr. Trout, confirmed bachelor of countless years.
Mr Llewellyn was staring dumbly, as Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott might have stared when the mirror cracked from side to side and the curse had come upon her. Indeed, if the Lady of Shalott had entered at this moment, he would have slapped her on the back and told her he knew just how she felt.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. In the rush of work and life, holidays and visitors from England, it’s been a while since I’ve sat down with an honest to goodness book, and I’d forgotten how much I love reading.
And I do.
I really, really do.
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