In 1981, Norman Murphy caused a minor stir in literary circles when he published In Search of Blandings, which demonstrated that many of P.G. Wodehouse’s legendary characters and settings were based on fact. In the two volumes of A Wodehouse Handbook, he reveals his findings across a wider field – the world that Wodehouse lived in and the …
Did people really speak like Bertie Wooster? Who was the celebrated Maisie? What does a Jubilee watering trough look like? Where is Loose Chippings? What was “Just Like Mother Makes”? Where does “the exile from home splendour dazzles in vain” come from? What was a gazeka? Why was Bertie Wooster more to be pitied than censured? When did …