Guardian Books | Earliest Wodehouse Satires Discovered
I’m a huge fan of the work of P.G. Wodehouse, a man who was surely one of the finest comic writers of any era. His splendid gifts for metaphor, simile and classically British understatement were paired up with an ability to create characters that are so vivid that they have in many cases passed into the public conscience even amongst those who do not read. Four new playlets written by Wodehouse a century ago have came to light and were read by the Wodehouse Appreciation Society for the first time at the weekend. It’s fascinating when unknown works of any writer come to the surface but what has intrigued me is the way that reports, such as that in The Observer, have dwelt on the fact that the new found writing is political satire.
Wodehouse may not have openly expressed partisan political views in the main body of his work but a look at books such as Psmith, Journalist shows that as well as being very funny he was also extremely socially aware. It has, unfortunately, been another opportunity for some people to drag up the sinister accusations of Nazi-sympathies. This galls me, there was a witch-hunt at the time, which one commentator has described as including ‘the most vituperative vilification of one man ever heard on the BBC’, he was denounced in the House of Commons by Anthony Eden and public libraries refused to buy any more of his books.
However, if you read the broadcasts properly you see that they’re his usual light hearted, highly amusing self. Yes, he doesn’t scream and shout and cry, but which Wodehouse character ever did? He becomes the ultimate embodiment of his characters and dismisses circumstances with an air of naivete and a shrug. In much the same way that a chap at the drones might be understated about their latest engagement, Wodehouse is understated about being taken from his home and sent to Poland. It’s a wonderful example of cheery British morale in the face of a bad situation.
“There is a good deal to be said for internment. It keeps you out of the saloons and gives you time to catch up with your reading… The chief drawback is that it means your being away from home… I feel that when I rejoin my wife, I had better take along a letter of introduction, just to be on the safe side.”
“The soldier who escorted me was unfortunately not one of those leisurely souls who believe in taking time over one’s packing. My idea had been to have a cold bath and a change and a bite to cat, and then to light a pipe and sit down and muse for a while, making notes of what to take with me and what could be left behind. His seemed to be that five minutes was ample. Eventually we compromised on ten.”
It carries on in such light hearted manner, exhibiting what would seem to me to be the kind of British “dash it chaps, those blighters bombing our house was a bit inconvenient, what?” type of blitz spirit that was so valued in those bombed at home. I understand that the Nazis were trying to manipulate him for propoganda but I think in his own way he was manipulating them. His first broadcast in particular is honest about the bad conditions, though written in a way that would imply it was not so bad after all. In that way I’m sure the Germans thought they’d gotten what they wanted, however, looked at in hindsight we have a clever old man telling it the way he always had.
Surely it’s time we can forget such accusations and instead marvel at the fact that he managed to keep his head, as Kipling would say, while all about him were losing theirs.
