This is Wodehouse, so you already know I think it’s the most wonderful
thing since sliced bread. The book includes a number of short stories
set at Blandings Castle, including the first appearance of that majestic
pig, the Empress of Blandings (I especially like “Lord Emsworth and the
Girl Friend”); a Bobbie Wickham story I’m not sure I’d read before; and
Mr. Mulliner’s Hollywood stories.

Every so often I try to explain why Wodehouse is so good, and what makes
him so funny; I don’t believe I’ve ever done him justice. So I’ve
decided to let him speak in his own words, with a few short extracts from
this set of stories:

Lord Emsworth could conceive of no way in which Freddie
could be of value to a dog-biscuit firm, except possibly as a taster; but
he refrained from damping the other’s enthusiasm by saying
so.

* * * * *

It sounded to Lord Emsworth exactly like a snarl. It was
a snarl. Chancing to glance floorwards, he became immediately aware, in
close juxtaposition to his ankles, of what appeared to be at first sight
to be a lady’s muff. But, this being one of his bright afternoons, he
realized in the next instant that it was no muff, but a dog of the
kind which women are only too prone to leave lying about their
sitting-rooms.

* * * * *

His recovery was hastened by…the spectacle of his son
Frederick clasping in his arms a wife who, his lordship had never
forgotten, was the daughter of probably the only millionaire in existence
who had that delightful willingness to take Freddie off his hands which
was, in Lord Emsworth’s eyes, the noblest quality a millionaire could
possess.

* * * * *

Now it has been well said that with nervous, highly-strung
men like Montrose Mulliner, a sudden call upon their manhood is often
enough to revolutionize their whole character. Psychologists have
frequently commented on this. We are too ready, they say, to dismiss as
cowards those who merely require the stimulus of the desparate emergency
to bring out all their latent heroism. The crisis comes, and the craven
turns magically into the paladin.

With Montrose, however, this was not the case. Ninety-nine out of a
hundred of those who knew him would have scoffed at the idea of him
interfering with an escaped gorilla to save the life of a child, and they
would have been right.