There are a few writers who have created a character whose name has become a by-word for a certain type of person. If we describe a man as a “regular Sherlock Holmes”, everyone knows what kind of man he is. Until recently, a popular search engine was named Ask Jeeves.com. Jeeves is of course the formidably erudite gentlemen’s gentleman created by P.G. Wodehouse. The site has recently dropped Jeeves and is now simply Ask.com, but the name Jeeves still denotes a person who knows a lot about everything.

P.G. Wodehouse was a prolific writer and lyricist who wrote nearly a hundred books over the time period 1902 to 1977. He created dozens of hilarious characters, among them Lord Emsworth, The Empress of Blandings, Stanley Featherstoneaugh Ukridge, and Galahad Threepwood, but it’s Bertie Wooster and his manservant Jeeves who are his best-known characters.

While I will naturally have all of Wodehouse’s books on the desert isle, I’ve picked The Code of the Woosters as one of the best examples of his work. It begins when Bertie’s aunt Dahlia Travers asks him to go to an antique shop and sneer at an 18th century cow creamer. Bertie’s uncle Tom Travers wants that cow creamer and by having Bertie to sneer at it, he hopes to get it cheap. But Sir Watkyn Bassett, the retired magistrate who once fined Bertie five pounds for stealing a policeman’s helmet, gets there first and buys the cow creamer. Since uncle Tom is despondent over losing the cow creamer, he is disinclined to finance aunt Dahlia’s weekly newspaper, Milady’s Boudoir (to which Bertie once contributed an article entitled “What The Well Dressed Man is Wearing”). Aunt Dahlia gives Bertie an ultimatum – steal the cow creamer, or else he will never again taste the wonderful meals of her French chef Anatole. To add to Bertie’s problems, Sir Watkyn’s niece Stephanie “Stiffy” Byng and Bertie’s school pal Harold “Stinker” Pinker are in love and would like to be married, but alas, Stinker needs a position that will pay him a decent salary and he’s too diffident to ask for one. Also Sir Watkyn’s daughter Madeleine is engaged to another of Bertie’s friends, the newt-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle, but she still hankers after Bertie, who thinks she’s a soupy ninny. Naturally, the course of true love does not run smooth for either set of couples and Bertie finds himself stuck in the middle. Also in love with Madeline and just waiting to pound Bertie to a jelly is Roderick Spode, leader of the fascist group The Black Shorts (the other shirt colors were taken.) Complications ensue and it takes all of Jeeves’s formidable brainpower to solve all the problems.

Since I am not in any way gifted with Wodehouse’s ability with words, I will not try to analyze why this book is so funny, just take my word that it will reduce readers to tears of laughter. Wodehouse has the wonderful ability to spin complicated and outlandish plots that somehow make perfect sense. His characters are all just enough over the top to be funny, but they never descend into caricature. Wodehouse’s style is light, deft and there is no one in the English language that can equal him in turning a phrase. I could fill several pages with favorite quotes, but here’s one that made me laugh so hard I almost hurt myself. Bertie Wooster is insulting Roderick Spode (who was based on Sir Oswald Mosley, the head of the British Union of Fascists – also known as the Black Shirts.)

“The trouble with you, Spode, is that because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of halfwits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting ‘Heil, Spode!’ and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: ‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?”

I will never look at a self-important person again without hearing that paragraph in my mind.

Wodehouse was hailed by many of his peers as a master writer. Evelyn Waugh said he could produce three uniquely brilliant and original similes on every page. Here’s one from The Code of the Woosters – Madeline Bassett is speaking: “Oh Bertie,” she said in a low voice like beer trickling out of a jug, “you ought not to be here!”

Since this is a romance site, I do have to confess that when it comes to romance, Bertie Wooster spends most of his time running from it. He’s not averse to a good wedding and will happily don the sponge bag trousers, buy the obligatory fish slice and swing a dashed efficient shoe at the reception – as long as he is not the groom.

If Wodehouse had written serious literature instead of brilliant comedy, I am sure he would have won the Nobel Prize, but he had to settle for being one of the most popular and beloved writers of all time. There are Wodehouse appreciation societies in most countries of the world, and most of his books are still in print. Not bad for a man who was once called “England’s performing flea”.