Blandings Castle and Elsewhere

(PD) Photo: unknown
P.G. Wodehouse around age 38

Blandings Castle and Elsewhere is a collection of 12 short stories by P.G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 12 April 1935 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and, as Blandings Castle, in the United States on 20 September 1935 by Doubleday Doran, New York. All the stories had previously appeared in Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and all except the last story in various U.S. magazines.

Overview

The first six stories all take place at the book's namesake Blandings Castle; they are set some time between the events of Leave it to Psmith (published in 1923) and those of Summer Lightning (published in 1929). The seventh concerns Bobbie Wickham, an acquaintance and sometime fiancée of Bertie Wooster in the well-known series of Jeeves books, and the last five are narrated by Mr. Mulliner, yet another of the author's recurring characters.

Contents

• "The Custody of the Pumpkin"
  • U.S.: Saturday Evening Post, 29 November 1924
  • U.K.: Strand, December 1924
• "Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best"
  • U.K.: Strand, June 1926
  • U.S.: Liberty, 5 June 1926
• "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey"
  • U.S.: Liberty, 9 July 1927
  • U.K.: Strand, August 1927
• "Company for Gertrude"
  • U.K.: Strand, September 1928
  • U.S.: Cosmopolitan, October 1928
• "The Go-getter"
  • U.S.: Cosmopolitan, March 1931 (as "Sales Resistance")
  • U.K.: Strand, August 1931
• "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend"
  • U.S.: Liberty, 6 October 1928
  • U.K.: Strand , November 1928
• "Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure"
  • U.S.: Liberty, 23 January 1926 (as "The Rest Cure")
  • U.K.: Strand, February 1926
• "Monkey Business"
  • U.K.: Strand, December 1932
  • U.S.: American Magazine, December 1932 (as "A Cagey Gorilla")
• "The Nodder"
  • U.K.: Strand, January 1933
  • U.S.: American Magazine, January 1933 (as "Love Birds")
• "The Juice of an Orange"
  • U.K.: Strand, February 1933
  • U.S.: American Magazine, February 1933 (as "Love on a Diet")
• "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom"
  • U.K.: Strand, April 1933
  • U.S.: American Magazine, March 1933 (as "A Star is Born")
• "The Castaways"
  • U.K.: Strand, June 1933

Television

Several of the Blandings stories from this collection were adapted for television by the BBC and broadcast in February and March 1967 in six half-hour episodes. They starred Ralph Richardson as Lord Emsworth, Derek Nimmo as Freddie Threepwood, Meriel Forbes as Lady Constance, and Stanley Holloway as Beach. Unfortunately the master tapes of all but the first episode ("Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend"), were wiped, and no known copies exist.

Three other stories featured in the collection, "Mr Potter takes a Rest Cure", "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom", and "The Nodder", were produced as part of the BBC's Wodehouse Playhouse series, starring John Alderton and Pauline Collins, airing in 1975 and 1976.

In 2013 BBC television aired a new series, Blandings, starring Timothy Spall as Clarence, Jennifer Saunders as Lady Constance, and Jack Farthing as Freddie. Beach was played by Mark Williams (2013) and Tim Vine (2014).

References and sources

References

Sources

• Midkiff, Neil (The Wodehouse Society [US]) (2001-10-30). The Wodehouse short stories. P. G. Wodehouse pages. Archived from the original on 17 February 2007. Retrieved on 2006-04-24. – Alphabetical list of Wodehouse's short stories, with publication and collections.
• Kuzmenko, Michel (The Russian Wodehouse Society) (2005-11-11). Blandings Castle. Bibliography. Archived from the original on 11 November 2005. – Lists of characters and publication dates for each story.

External links

• Fantastic Fiction's page, with details of published editions, photos of book covers and links to used copies