P.G. Wodehouse: A Biography [Paperback]

Frances Donaldson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

There are not many characters in literature more famous or cherished than Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. They feature in nearly 100 tomes, which taken together, make their creator, Sir Pelham Greville Wodehouse, among the most eminent and best-loved writers of comedy in the English language. But what of the man himself? Frances Donaldson, who first met Wodehouse in 1921, was given unique access to his most important private papers. From his blissful school days and his love affair with Hollywood to his time as a prisoner of war and his final years in America, Donaldson's definitive biography paints a luminous and affectionate portrait of the man known to his friends as "Plum."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At the time of its 1982 release, this was the first "full-dress" biography of Wodehouse. LJ's reviewer gushed over the book, saying it contains "a wealth of information, anecdotal and otherwise and will probably stand as the best general account of the man and his writings for some time." Two decades later, Wodehouse is a popular humorist with tons of books in print and many fans, so this volume is a worthy addition to literary biography sections. (LJ 4/15/82)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

³Donaldson and Wodehouse go together like Boswell and Johnson ... Jeeves and Bertie.² -- Stephen Fry

³The definitive, beautifully composed, affectionate but absolutely judicious biography of Wodehouse.² -- LOS ANGELES TIMES

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Prion (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853754242
• ISBN-13: 978-1853754241
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,279,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Peach of a Bio on Plum, January 24, 2005

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: P.G. Wodehouse: A Biography (Paperback)

I am somewhat diffident about biographies, and I think our age has no taste for them. The reason is that they reveal more about the author than their subject. So unless you're a voracious reader, you'd far rather read something else. Bios of Wodehouse are particularly suspect. Firstly, hardly anyone is as good a writer as PGW, and therefore the bio will be less engaging than its subject. Secondly, hardly anyone in the hard-bitten writing trade is as amiable as PGW, and therefore their bio will be less enjoyable than their subject. Regardless of these obstacles, there is still good reason for the itinerant biographer to charge ahead: that is because PGW has been the object of a sustained attack, and mired in a smokescreen of disinformation. Someone must rise to the challenge to clear the air, and hopefully, his good name.

And someone has. Stephen Fry, who gave us the unforgettable Jeeves in the wonderful videos of Jeeves and Wooster, long ago raised one eyebrow (Jeeves' equivalent to two thumbs up) in favor of Donaldson's vita, and for good reason. Having full access to the collected papers of Richard Usborne (author of Plum Sauce) re: Plum's Berlin broadcasts, she delves in to set the record straight, so that, as writer Evelyn Waugh devoutly hoped, Britain can at last hug its greatest national humourist to its bosom.

That cloud dispelled, she takes us on a walking tour of the sorts of places we tourists are anxious to visit: Plum's ancestral home, where we search the grounds for a bevvy of aunts, his young days as a schoolboy and sportsman, where we look for the type of Malvern House, to the Hollywood stint whose flickering light would grace so many books, the clubs and cronies forever resonant in "Drones" and "Blandings," the pekes of Ukridge's dog wash, and a lifelong devotion to the "dumb chums." And of course we wonder whether Plum ever smothered Ethel's upturned face with kisses and called her "My Rabbit."

The mind boggles at the enormity of her task, but Donaldson has somehow won the day. Twin souls with the reader, she seems to share our distaste of bilge literature and instead shows us how Plum shines through in his engaging and enjoyable books. How can one reply but in the words of one Wooster to another soul who saved the day? Donaldson, you're a wonder.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Biography!, September 14, 2009

By 

Merrill Gee "good story lover" (Salt Lake City, Utah United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: P.G. Wodehouse: A Biography (Paperback)

This is, in my opinion, the best of the three biographies of Wodehouse that I have read. I must admit to being partial to biographies that are sympathetic, but not not so much so that they are adulatory and this biography is the best on that score. The author was a good friend of Wodehouse's daughter, and, therefore, acquainted with the family, which gives her a personal insight into her subject which is both interesting and refreshing.
She deals at length with what is probably the most interesting--certainly, the controversial--spect of Wodehouse's life--the German broadcasts. It includes a typescript of them, which allows the reader to decide for himself if they deserved the condemation that Wodehouse received from his fellow countrymen for having made them.
All in all, I found it to be a full and satisfying picture of a most remarkably talented man who would doubtlessly have preferred to have done nothing remarkable other than write those most delightfully clever novels, stories, plays, and lyrics that seemed to have flowed so effortlessly from his fertile imagination.

5.0 out of 5 stars A more sympathetic portrait of Wodehouse, February 22, 2012

By 

Anne Salazar "inveterate reader" (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: P. G. Wodehouse: a Biography (Paperback)

Having read and enjoyed Robert McCrum's lengthy 2004 biography of P.G. Wodehouse, I still felt that there was more -- notwithstanding the enigmatic nature of the almost Jekyll-Hyde personality of Wodehouse, so I sought out additional books about him. This one, by Frances Donaldson, is the best of the bunch.

Ms. Donaldson was close friends for many years with Wodehouse's beloved step-daughter Leonora and quotes directly and extensively from their correspondence, but more than that, she reprints Wodehouse's amazing broadcasts from Nazi Germany as well as personal letters and other manuscripts that are only excerpted in the other Wodehouse books. Also, she seems to put Wodehouse in a more sympathetic light and I find that I don't quite cringe at his personality as I did before reading this book.

It's been fun, but I have now had my fill of Jeeves and company, so it's onward and upward to other people and things ...