Joe’s Comments (group member since Dec 18, 2018)

Joe’s comments from the Wodehouse cracks me up group.

There are a couple Facebook groups that are quite active. I think that it your best bet.

Ukridge was always closer to an anti-hero than a hero and something of a divisive figure in Wodehouse fandom. Later short stories about the man would make him if anything more of a scoundrel. If Arthur Conan Doyle had taken time out from writing Sherlock Holmes to pen the occasional Raffles story, you would have had a similar effect.
I suspect that understanding the experimental background that birthed Ukridge helps us to comprehend both the character and the attachment that Wodehouse felt for the character. As Wodehouse tried to find a formula for future success, he would co-write the semi-autobiographical novel Not George Washington with Herbert Westbrook. Here he would complain that he had never been allowed to show his sense of humor because all editors wanted from him were school adventures. You can almost feel the pain of some of the later writers of the Hardy Boys pumping out novel after novel for 75 bucks per.
PG and HW also penned The Globe by the Way Book when he was working for the newspaper The Globe. This silly little compilation was meant to entertain riders on the vast English train system and was not unlike writing for New York subway sufferers today. Wodehouse also gave invasion comedy a try with The Swoop! which saw England invaded by nine separate armies and was saved by the boy scouts. The clever idea was sabotaged by comparatively poor execution especially given the brilliance that Wodehouse would display in the future.
It wasn’t until 1910 and A Gentleman of Leisure that another solid comedy would flow from his pen making Ukridge his only successful comedic creation for close to half a decade. Small wonder than that Wodehouse would return to this quirky character for short stories time after time.

Did you read the Uncle Fred Books? Those are fun some are Blandings so you likely read those. Here is my list...

J = Jeeves & Wooster, B = Blandings, UF = Uncle Fred
(****) Something Fresh or Something New (1915) – B
A damsel in distress 1919
Indiscretions of Archie 1921
The girl on the boat 1922
(*****) The Inimitable Jeeves (1923 - short stories) – J
(****) Leave it to Psmith (1923) – B
Bill the Conqueror
****) Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935 - short stories) - B
(****) Carry On, Jeeves (1925 - short stories) - J
(****) Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927 – short stories) – Mulliner (*****) Money for Nothing (1928) – Drones / Summer Lightning
Mr. Mulliner speaking 1929
(*****) Summer Lightning or Fish Preferred (1929) - B
(*****) Very Good, Jeeves (1930 - short stories) – J
(****) Big Money (1931) – Valley Fields
Hot Water 1932
(****) Heavy Weather (1933) - B
(****) Mulliner Nights (1933 – short stories) - Mulliner
(*****) Thank You, Jeeves (1934) - J
(*****) Right Ho, Jeeves or Brinkley Manor (1934) - J
(****) Luck of the Bodkins (1935) – Drones / Heavy Weather
(*****) Young Men in Spats (1936) – Drones / Uncle Fred
(****) Lord Emsworth and Others or The Crime Wave at Blandings (1937 - short stories) - B
(*****) The Code of the Woosters (1938) - J
(*****) Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939) – B / UF
Big Money 1939
(****) Eggs, Beans & Crumpets – Read Bingo Stories
(****) Quick Service (1940) – One Off Novel
(****) Money in the Bank (1942) – Blandings like Novel / Twist & Malloys
(*****) Joy in the Morning or Jeeves in the Morning (1947) - J
(****) Full Moon (1947) - B
(*****) Uncle Dynamite (1948) - UF
(****) Mating Season (1949) - J
Old Reliable 1951
(*****) Pigs Have Wings (1952) - B
(****) Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit or Bertie Wooster Sees It Through (1954) - J
French Leave 1956
(***) Cocktail Time (1958) - UF
(****) A Few Quick Ones (1959 – Short Stories) – One J Story
(***) Jeeves in the Offing or How Right You Are, Jeeves (1960) - J
(****) Ice in the Bedroom (1961) – Drones / Twist & Malloys
(****) Service with a Smile (1961) – B / UF
(****) Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963) - J
(***) Galahad at Blandings (1965) - B
(***) A Pelican at Blandings or No Nudes is Good Nudes (1969) - B
() Much Obliged, Jeeves or Jeeves and the Tie That Binds (1971) – J

PG Wodehouse had a big heart and could be quite generous with his friends. His support of old-school chum and failed writer William Townend might have surprised anyone who knew just how much cash the successful wordsmith had funneled to the unsuccessful journeyman scribe.

A suggestion that William made in the exceptionally early 1900s helped balance this seemingly one-sided relationship. As we will see in a nonce or two, a young Pelham Grenville began his lifetime of writing with a string of schoolboy novels and for all we know might have continued in this vein for decades to come. It was his old deskmate William who said, ‘Why not try writing something for all these adults I see roaming the streets?’ So it was that Wodehouse unleashed the typewriter and created his first adult novel and his first memorable character.

Why are the most wonderful things in life unhealthy or outrageously expensive? If bacon and eggs don’t stop your heart cold, a pint at your local pub will destroy your liver. Survive these menaces and not one in a baker’s dozen of you will step from the pub to find your chauffeur waiting with a classic Bentley to whisk you off to your personal yacht. Yet the poorest and unhealthiest amongst you can step into your local bookseller’s shop and for a pittance purchase perfection. The worlds of Wodehouse beckon to all offering happiness unspeakable and full of Joy.

Sadly it seems to be defunct doesn't it? If folks are on Facebook there are a couple of active Wodehouse groups there that might be enjoyable.