A Book Set in a City

The options for this category are limitless and I’ve spent much time perusing my shelves. My mind immediately jumped to A Time in a City by Gordon Cooper, a book I adored as a child. Then, staying in the early twentieth century, I considered Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson, one of her glorious novels set in Vienna. However, as my deadline approached late last night – or possibly even very early this morning – I decided on Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott.

Published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and authorised by the PG Wodehouse estate, Jeeves and the King of Clubs is the first of his two novels about Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. It’s set in the inter-war period and mostly in London. I’ve been reading Jeeves and Wooster since I was a teenager and I can hear them in my head. Hmm. That makes me sound worryingly peculiar. What I mean is that they have distinct voices that leap off the page. I suspect that in this case the leaping has been assisted by Messrs Fry and Laurie who played the duo on television in the early 1990s.

Because I knew the PG Wodehouse books so well, I was nervous about reading Ben Schott’s continuation but I loved it. The characters sound exactly as they should; somehow Ben has caught their voices perfectly without descending into mere imitation. Many of the other well-known characters appear here: Lady Florence Craye, Madeline Bassett, Aunts Dahlia and Agatha, Lord Sidcup aka Roderick Spode as well as some Drones Club familiars. But there are also some additions to the cast who surprise both Bertie and the reader.

What I like most (possibly) about this book and its sequel, Jeeves and the Leap of Faith, is the way that Bertie is transformed from a caricature to a fully-rounded character without losing anything of his essence. I’m still not entirely sure how Ben Schott achieved that but I am very grateful that he has. I am ever-hopeful that he’ll write a third volume…

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