What Ho! P. G. Wodehouse on Money

By Paul Kent

"[I'm] as broke as the ten commandments."
P. G. "Plum" Wodehouse knew a thing or two about the money-go-round; in 1938 he was the world's highest paid writer. At times, his financial affairs read like one of his own comic plots, as British and American tax inspectors chased him from pillar to post across two continents. Many of his characters are similarly afflicted: but whether they have too much or too little splosh in the old sock, they always seem to learn – in the funniest ways possible – that money is an excellent servant and a terrible master.
The fifth of Paul Kent's occasional essays on matters Wodehousean is packed with paupers and plutocrats, meritocrats and misers all mooching with Mammon. It most certainly is funny in this rich man's world!

• Language: English
• Publisher: TSB
• Release date: Jun 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9781911673507

Paul Kent

Paul Kent is the Vice-Chairman of the P G Wodehouse Society (UK), and has been a fan of the great man for longer than he cares to remember. Between 2019 and 2022, he published a trilogy of books that offers a comprehensive tour of Wodehouse’s creative imagination – ‘This is jolly old Fame’, ‘Mid-Season Form’ and ‘The Happiness of the World’ – which seeks to prove that Plum was not just a great comic writer, but a great writer, period. Books 4 and 5 of the trilogy – respectively ‘Plum’s Literary Heroes’ and ‘Plum at the Theatre’ – are currently in preparation; and the first ten occasional essays entitled What Ho! are available now: they are Wodehouse on Food, Sport, Love, Money, Class, Cats, Dogs, Hollywood, Fashion, Childhood, and Faith.

Book preview

1Praise for Paul Kent’s Trilogy:

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse: Volumes 1, 2 and 3

Volumes 1 & 2 This is Jolly Old Fame and Mid-Season Form

Despite Wodehouse’s antipathy towards critics, Kent’s first volume demonstrates just how much the thick-skinned of us have to explore in his work. It is therefore excellent news that we await two more volumes of his work that can help us to unpick that poetry and try to better understand the source of that sunlit perfection".

Eliza Easton in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS)

I have been enthralled while reading it … [Kent’s] accounts of Plum himself, and so many of his major characters, are consistently masterful and compelling, bringing time and again new and fascinating insights into their backgrounds, characters and motivations. The book is indeed a masterpiece.

Sir Edward Cazalet, PGW’s grandson

Kent displays an encyclopaedic knowledge of the minutiae of Wodehouse’s oeuvre and presents his arguments in a lively and engaging prose style that treads a delicate balance between academic rigour and readability. We read Wodehouse because he was a master of words. We can read Kent for the same reason.

Stewart Ferris, Wooster Sauce, Journal of the P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

[A] whole new perspective on Wodehouse.

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, The Netherlands Wodehouse Society

Brilliant. The breadth of Wodehouse and wider references [Kent brings] in is staggering. And again, it’s about the writing: hooray! Kent is forging the new path in the way I hope writing about Wodehouse will go.

Tim Andrew, Chairman, The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

Some fascinating insights into Plum’s work. Tends to make you think about Wodehouse; what you have read and what you think/thought you know/knew. As Abbie Hoffman said: Steal this book.

Ken Clevenger, Fans of PG Wodehouse Facebook site

Vol. 2, which I have just finished has really blown me away. It gave me a warm glow of happiness.

David Salter, The P G Wodehouse Society (UK) member

Volume 3 The Happiness of the World

This is a magnificent book. Kent’s erudition, scholarship and easy turn of phrase makes it a must read for Wodehouse fans young and old. By placing the man, his character and his writing so effortlessly and brilliantly into the context of his times he gets to the nub of his greatness in a way others haven’t. Reading this book was an utter joy.

David Cazalet, PGW’s great grandson

Paul’s books are extraordinarily well researched, detailed, sometimes complex - and extremely readable, so I could review [Volume 3] in six words: ‘Engaging, engrossing, entertaining – and hugely important’.

Wooster Sauce, Journal of the P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

2

3

WHAT HO!

P. G. WODEHOUSE ON …

MONEY

A Series of Occasional Papers

Paper 4

TSB

LONDON AND NEW YORK

7

Wodehouse on… Money

The drawbacks come in when matters of Finance are to the fore. That is when we authors suffer.

‘Thoughts on the Income Tax’

"Why, dash it, if I could think of some way of doing down the income-tax people, I should be a rich man.

You don’t know of a way of doing down the income-tax people do you, Bertie?"

Sorry, no. I doubt if even Jeeves does.

The Mating Season

Handsome, like all the Mulliners, he possessed in addition to good looks the inestimable blessings of perfect health, a cheerful disposition, and so much money the Income-Tax assessors screamed with joy when forwarding Schedule D to his address.

‘The Ordeal of Osbert Mulliner’

Amazing how these rich Johnnies love getting something for nothing.

Uneasy Money

Contents

Title Page

Epigraph

What Ho! P. G. Wodehouse on Money

About the Authors

Copyright

8

By his mid-40s, P.G. Wodehouse was rich. Seriously rich. Gosh, he wrote to his friend Bill Townend, it’s amazing how money has been pouring in, almost as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. Well, it was, and 1927 was a particularly prosperous year.

Plum had been