Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (2003)

By P G Wodehouse
If you like books where people say “Ho!” and “Ha!” and even “What Ho!” a lot then I reckon you should try the adventures of the hapless man-about-town Bertie Wooster and his unflappable butler, Jeeves.

This is not my favourite Jeeves book so far but still very enjoyable. Bertie Wooster is interrupted in his reading of a thrilling new novel “The Mystery of the Pink Crayfish” by Rex West (I wish someone would write this novel) to attend to the problems of his Aunt Dahlia, who is trying to sell her woman’s literary magazine Milady’s Boudoir to some difficult house guests, without her husband discovering that she pawned her pearls to pay for its publication. As usual things go terribly wrong and Bertie gets himself engaged (accidentally) to a woman who would prefer him to read the works of T.S. Eliot and Auden. As usual, however, everyone is saved by Jeeves in the end.

I picked up a few good insults in this one – how does “inhuman gargoyle” grab you? Or “You ghastly sheepfaced fugitive from hell”? Or even “You revoting young piece of cheese”?
I should say, that although I love these books, I expect a lot of people won’t – my friend Tash can’t stand them.

NB Some of Rex West’s other thrilling titles include Murder in Mauve, The Case of the Poisoned Doughnut and Inspector Biffen Views the Body.

Rating: 8 out of 10