P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

Author(s): P. G. Wodehouse

Biography

This is the definitive edition of P.G. Wodehouse's letters, edited with a commentary by Oxford academic Sophie Ratcliffe. One of the funniest and most admired writers of the twentieth century, P.G. Wodehouse always shied away from the idea of a biography. A quiet, retiring man, he expressed himself through the written word. His letters - collected and expertly edited here - provide an illuminating biographical accompaniment to legendary comic creations such as Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith and the Empress of Blandings. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, these letters give an unrivalled insight into Wodehouse, covering his schooldays at Dulwich College, the family's financial reverses which saw his hopes of university dashed, life in New York working in musical comedy with Jerome Kern and George and Ira Gershwin, the years of fame as a novelist, and the unhappy episode in 1940 where he was interned by the Germans and later erroneously accused of broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda. It is a book every lover of Wodehouse will want to possess.


Product Information

The collected letters of England's best-loved comic writer

The author of almost a hundred books and the creator of Jeeves, Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, Uncle Red and Mr Mulliner, P.G. Wodehouse was born in 1881 and educated at Dulwich College. After two years with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank he became a full-time writer, contributing to a variety of periodicals including Punch and the Globe. He married in 1914. As well as his novels and short stories, he wrote lyrics for musical comedies with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, and at one time had five musicals running simultaneously on Broadway. His time in Hollywood also provided much source material for fiction. Sophie Ratcliffe is a tutor in English at Christ Church, Oxford, specialising in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. She also reviews fiction and criticism for the national press. She lives in Oxford with her husband and young son.

General Fields

  • : 9780091796341
  • : Penguin Random House
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : 1.058
  • : October 2011
  • : 240mm X 156mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : P. G. Wodehouse
  • : Hardback
  • : 1211
  • : English
  • : 823.912
  • : very good
  • : 624