Who has not come to know and love the impeccable Jeeves and the inimitable Bertie? Together with Lord Emsworth, his prize sow the Empress of Blandings, Psmith, and a whole host of redoubtable Wooster aunts, they form a cast of characters, immortalized in print and on screen, whose sharply observed antics are as popular now as when they first appeared in 1919.But what of their creator, Pelham Greville Wodehouse, whose 93 years produced a volume of work "unsurpassed in the history of literature"? Was he really a traitor to his country who broadcast dangerous propaganda from Germany during the war? And how can this be squared with the immensely lovable figure of "Plum" upon whom the Queen bestowed a knighthood in 1975?
In researching this authorized, definitive biography, Frances Donaldson was given unique access to Wodehouse's most important private papers, including the notebooks he kept during the sad episode of his internment during the Second World War. She also, for the first time, puts his beliefs, his writings, and his actions into the full context of the rest of his life.
Lucidly and evocatively written, yet meticulously detailed, P.G. Wodehouse is a thought-provoking biography of an intriguing and widely misunderstood man. It is the benchmark of biographical writing against which recent literary biographies have had to be measured.
