Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE

In this comic novel - dedicated to Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in the stage version - Jimmy Pitt, man-about-town and former newspaper hound, takes a bet that he cannot commit burglary. He finds breaking and entering easy enough, but then discovers that he has forced his way into the home of a tough New York policeman. Naturally, Captain McEachern has a beautiful daughter and problems of his own. The complications which ensue from their meeting, involving a rich cast of Wodehousean characters from both sides of the Atlantic, create one of his most amusing and light-hearted early novels.

J. Wellington Gedge seems to have everything a man could desire: a rich wife, a chateau, a life of ease in the south of France. But all he really wants is to return to California, not least because Mrs Gedge, who holds the purse-strings, is scheming to have him appointed as American ambassador in Paris, which means he will have to wear a sissy uniform. Fortunately, her plans are thwarted by a complicated series of events which involves French aristocrats, American crooks, an English novelist and the appalling Senator Opal, whose daughter, Jane, has a mind of her own.

Sir Buckstone Abbot owns what is possibly the ugliest stately home in England, and he is naturally eager to dispose of it to an American heiress, Princess Dwornitzchek. But the sale is complicated by the Princess's engagement to Adrian Peake, who is being pursued by Sir Buckstone's daughter, Jane, who is loved by Joe Vanringham. In the end, almost everyone gets what they want, even Prudence Whittaker, Sir Buckstone's awfully well-spoken secretary.

Take a pig, a fat-headed earl, a country house, several pairs of frustrated lovers, some scheming outsiders, and all sorts of people who aren’t who they say they are. Mix thoroughly and apply the Wodehouse magic. The result is the lightest of literary soufflées, another instalment in the long-running saga of the Threepwood family, including the head of the clan, Lord Emsworth, his virago sister, Lady Constance, and his debonair brother, the Honourable Galahad Threepwood, ex-boulevardier and solver of romantic problems.

Anyone who involves himself with Roberta Wickham is asking for trouble, so naturally Bertie Wooster finds himself in just that situation when he goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court. So much is obvious. Why celebrated loony-doctor Sir Roderick Glossop should be there too, masquerading as a butler, is less clear. As for Bertie’s former headmaster, the ghastly Aubrey Upjohn, the dreadful novelist, Mrs Homer Cream and her eccentric son Wilbert, their presence is entirely perplexing. Without Jeeves to help him solve these mysteries, Bertie nearly comes unstuck. It is only when that peerless manservant returns from his holiday that the resulting tangle of problems is sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction – except Bertie’s.

Monty Bodkin's pursuit of Gertude Butterwick is temporarily interrupted by his encounter with silver-screen siren Miss Lotus Blossom, who sees in him a means of restoring relations with her idol, the novelist Ambrose Tennyson. But Monty is not the only one with problems. Ambrose's brother Reggie has money troubles and Ikey Llewellyn is struggling with difficulties which would tax anyone's ingenuity, let alone his limited brain power. When the paths of these men collide, the ensuing plot complications produce a vintage Wodehouse farce involving London, New York, Hollywood and translatlantic liners. A delicious period piece from 1935.

Wodehouse is at his most sparkling in this collection of stories concering members of the Drones Club. Pongo Twistleton and Freddie Widgeon may be small of brain and short of cash but they are always good for ingenious adventures, especially when it comes to falling in love with the wrong girl or cooking up hopeless schemes to make money. They and their contemporaries populate a series of vignettes in which the plot-twists keep you on your toes while the jokes keep on coming.

Who but P.G. Wodehouse could have extraced high comedy from the most noble and ancient game of golf? And who else could have combined this comedy with a real appreciation of the game, drawn from personal experience? Wodehouse's brilliant but humane brand of humour is perfectly suited to these stories of love, rivalry, revenge and fulfilment on the links. While the oldest member sits inside the clubhouse quoting Marcus Aurelius on patience and wisdom, outside on the green the strongest human passions burn. All human life is here, from Sandy McHoots, the cocky professional, to shy Ramsden Waters, whose only consolation in life is golf. Even golf-haters will not be able to resist stories which perfectly combine physical farce and verbal wit with a gallery of unforgettable characters.

Trapped in the rural hell-hole of Steeple Bumpleigh with his bossy ex-fiancée, Florence Craye, her fire-breathing father, Lord Worplesdon, her frightful Boy-Scout brother, Edwin, and her beefy new betrothed, 'Stilton' Cheesewright, Bertie Wooster finds himself walking a diplomatic tightrope. With Florence threatening to ditch Stilton for Bertie, and Stilton threatening to trample on Bertie's insides if she does, things look black until Jeeves arrives to save the day. One of Wodehouse's most sparkling comedies, replete with an attendant cast of tyrannical aunts, demon children and literary fatheads.

A collection of stories in which familiar characters and places are reintroduced in unfamiliar circumstances, reminding us – if we need reminding – of their author's limitless powers of comic invention. In the title story – one of Wodehouse's longest and best shorter fictions – Lord Emsworth takes his revenge on his ghastly secretary, the Efficient Baxter, setting off a wave of similar reprisals at Blandings Castle with amazing results. In other tales we meet several members of the Drones Club, while the final three reunite us with the ineffable Ukridge, more of whose ever-optimistic schemes for making easy money come to grief. A delightful meeting with old friends for some readers, a superb introduction to the world of Wodehouse for others.

A stalwart of the Angler's Rest, where he is usually to be found in company with Miss Postlethwaite the barmaid, Mr Mulliner has an endless supply of brothers, nephews and cousins who feature in the tales with which he entertains the regulars in his favourite pub. There is George, the stammerer, who finds the courage to propose only after being chased by a mob; Wilfred, the chemist, who muddles his cosmetic potions with dire results; Lancelot, the film star; William, the lover of Myrtle Banks; Clarence, the society photographer; and Augustine, the curate, who saves his bishop from disgrace at the school reunion. All win through to love and success, but only after enough farcical mishaps to supply a dozen ordinary comic novelists.

When Bertie Wooster goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court and find himself engaged to the imperious Lady Florence Craye, disaster treatens from all sides. While Florence tries to cultivate his mind, her former fiance, hefty policeman Stilton Cheesewright, threatens to beat his body to a pulp, and her new admirer, the bleating poet percy Gorringe, tries to borrow a thousand pounds. To cap it all, Bertie has incurred the disapproval of Jeeves by growing a moustach, thus alienating the only man who can save him from his trip to the altar. Throw in a disappearing pearl necklace, Aunt Dahlia's magazine Milady's Boudir, her cook Anatole, the Drones' dart match, and Mr and Mrs L. G. Trotter from Liverpool, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Wodehouse farce.

A Hollywood star and an English aristocrat exchange souls while under ether at the dentist and the result is mayhem. Though his golden curls and sweet expression make him the idol of mothers throughout America, Joey Cooley is a tough nut who wants nothing more than to revenge himself on the agents, directors and producers who make his life a misery, before escaping back to Ohio. When his soul is transplanted into the body of an English earl with a boxing Blue he has the chance to 'poke them all in the snoot'. Lord Havershot, meanwhile, finds himself under the thumb of the fierce Miss Brinkmeyer and terrorized by the boy stars Joey has supplanted. The result is Anglo-American farce with the lightest of touches.

At Deverill Hall, an idyllic Tudor manor in the picture-perfect village of King's Deverill, impostors are in the air. The prime example is man-about-town Bertie Wooster, doing a good turn to Gussie Fink-Nottle by impersonating him while he enjoys fourteen days away from society after being caught taking an unscheduled dip in the fountains of Trafalgar Square. Bertie is of course one of nature's gentlemen, but the stakes are high: if all is revealed, there's a danger that Gussie's simpering fiancée Madeline may turn her wide eyes on Bertie instead.

It's a brilliant plan - until Gussie himself turns up, imitating Bertram Wooster. After that, only the massive brain of Jeeves (himself in disguise) can set things right.

The Honourable Galahad Threepwood has decided to write his memoirs and England's aristocrats are all diving for cover, not least Galahad's formidable sister Lady Constance Keeble who fears that her brother will ruin the family reputation with saucy stories of the 1890s. But Galahad's memoirs are not the only cause for concern. Yet again Lord Emsworth's prize pig has been stolen and, as usual, the castle seems to be buzzing with imposters all pretending to be one another. Love and natural justice triumph in the end, but not before Wodehouse has tangled and unangled a plot of Shakespearean complexity in a novel which might as well be subtitled 'The Price of the Papers'.