Cosy Moments

It is almost a certainty that, as one picks up a previously unread Wodehouse novel, the following hours of happy reading will contain at least one moment of utterly irrepressible mirth. It will come in any form: a word, a sentence, a phrase, a paragraph. In The Code of the Woosters, for instance, this moment occurs across the words, “Modern Dutch”, for reasons that only those acquainted with the text will comprehend. Similarly, in the collection of short stories, My Man Jeeves, we hear of Bicky who “rocked like a jelly in a high wind”. Likewise, in a later text, Right Ho, Jeeves, Bertie remarks at a time of some considerable stress:

The persp., already bedewing my brow, became a regular Niagara.

Bertie goes on and, in conversation with his inimitable manservant Jeeves, attempts to confirm the identity of a gentleman under discussion:

The chap with the nose?

With this canon of regular hilarity whetting my comedy loins somewhat, I approached the Psmith series with dewy anticipation. I was not disappointed, dear reader, for within the first chapter or so, the reader is introduced to a nobleman of sorts, Billy Windsor, who possesses a notable talent for the security business.

[Billy’s] alliance with Pugsy Maloney had begun on the occasion when he had rescued that youth from the clutches of a large negro, who, probably from the soundest of motives, was endeavoring to slay him.