Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Another P. G. Wodehouse impostor has turned up at the Drones Club, home away from home of Bertie Wooster, and he's banging on the door, demanding admittance. But before dismissing Mr. Schott as an impudent bounder, let's look at his credentials. He's the author of Schott's Original Miscellany (2002), and if ever a book could qualify an author to write an homage to Wodehouse, this hilarious compendium of useless information—"the flotsam and jetsam on the conversational tide," as Schott describes the nuggets of nothingness he collects—is surely it. After all, Bertie, that Mayfair gadfly, floats on the conversational tide with aplomb, and he is drinking buddies with both flotsam and jetsam. So, OK, what does Schott have on offer? Plenty. Not only are Bertie and the unflappable Jeeves, Bertie's "gentleman's personal gentleman," in full cry, but, shockingly, Bertie has a job! It turns out that Jeeves' club, the Junior Ganymede, an association of butlers and valets, has long been an arm of the British Secret Service (of course it has). Now the spying butlers and their spymaster need Bertie's help to nail an ascot-clad Fascist whose motto is Make Great Britain Great Again. To do so takes all manner of craziness, including an uproarious chase scene, but Schott brings it all off in high and hilarious style. Best of all, his wordplay can hold its own with the Master's. Here's Bertie describing the unctuous Fascist: "The seventh Earl of Sidcup is a sore for sighted eyes." Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Everyone and his butler thinks he can do the Wodehouse voice. They're all wrong, but Schott's version, a painstaking facsimile rendered in spun sugar, has its own particular charm. From 1915 to 1974, the British humorist and immortal genius P.G. Wodehouse tickled readers' palates with tales of the well-born, well-heeled Bertie Wooster and his unflappable valet, Jeeves. Wodehouse balanced frenetic plots with wordplay that drew its zing from the contrast between Bertie's breeziness and Jeeves' formality. All the elements are here in Schott's version: country weekends with the "Aged Relative," impersonations, taxi chases, narrow escapes across rooftops, matrimonial engagements that threaten like thunderstorms. Familiar characters stay in character: Madeline Bassett moons over daisy chains, Roderick Spode stomps around in his fascist black shorts, Uncle Tom obsesses over antique silver, and Bingo, Freddie, Barmy, Tuppy, and Catsmeat booze it up with Bertie at the Drones Club. Sch ott, known for his charming trivia (Schott's Quintessential Miscellany, 2011, etc.), is capable of true Wodehousian flights in lines like "From across the auditorium came a clatter of chairs and the resounding ‘thud' of a tall man overestimating a low door" or "The majority of Dronesmen suffer from advanced cases of ergophobia—a sloth-inducing affliction that is as crippling as it is contagious. Medical Science has hitherto been reluctant to recognize ergophobia as a genuine diagnosis, but if Medical Science ever popped into the Drones Club on a weekday afternoon, then Medical Science's bow tie would spin round and round in amazement." But where the master's own voice seems to burble forth as effortlessly as a gutter's in a downpour, Schott gives the impression of infinite—if gleeful—labor. He even includes endnotes. The endnotes are a joy, as one might expect from the author of Schott's Miscellany, but still. Anyone who hasn't read the original Jeeve s and Wooster stories should start with the master himself, but fans longing for more will welcome Schott's homage, which was authorized by the Wodehouse estate. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Bertie Wooster and his gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves, venture into spy thriller territory in this impressive homage, authorized by the Wodehouse estate, from Schott (Schott's Original Miscellany). In The Code of the Woosters (1938), Bertie and Jeeves outwitted fascist demagogue Roderick Spode, leader of the Black Shorts. Now, officials of the British government suspect Spode is in cahoots with hostile foreign powers and enlist Bertie and Jeeves in an effort to thwart his schemes. Along the way, Bertie visits Brinkley Court, where he must impersonate Aunt Dahlia's chef, Anatole, and Jeeves reveals much new information about the operations of the Junior Ganymede Club, whose members are butlers and valets. Schott comes up with Wodehouse caliber metaphors ("she has a profile that, if not a thousand ships, certainly propelled a punt or two down the Cherwell") and otherwise expertly channels the master's voice, but some readers will wish that he had gone deeper into the nature of Spode's treachery. Nonetheless, this is an essential volume for Wodehouse fans, rounded out with endnotes full of fun historical and literary facts. Agent: Natasha Fairweather, Rogers, Coleridge & White. (Nov.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.