Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

'Whether you're an absolute beginner or an aficionado, Paul Kent has captured the essence of what made Wodehouse tick without spoiling all the fun; and makes a compelling case for why we owe it to our collective sanity to keep on reading him.' (Wooster Sauce) P.G. Wodehouse, 1881-1975, Humourist, Novelist, Lyricist, Playwright. So reads the simple inscription on the memorial stone unveiled in London's Westminster Abbey in September 2019, honouring the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. Kent offers the reader a guided tour of Wodehouse's imagination, for the first time ever uniting the master's novels, stories, song lyrics, poems, plays and journalism in a single work. Vol 1 explores the origins of PGW's comedic vision. Kent was granted unprecedented access to the Wodehouse family archive, as well as the writer's private library. It takes a steady hand and a steely nerve to insist that sweetness and light can prevail in a world that seems hell-bent on proving the opposite, and over 40 years after his death, Wodehouse is not just surviving but thriving all over the world. Young Indian professionals can't get enough of him; he's hugely popular in Japan; his books have been translated into more than 30 languages, from Azerbaijani to Ukrainian via Hebrew, Italian, Swedish and Chinese; and there are established Wodehouse societies in the UK, the USA, Belgium, Holland and Russia. His books are demonstrating the staying power of true classics, and are all currently in print, making him as relevant - and funny - as he ever was.

Paul Kent has trawled just about every word Wodehouse wrote to re-present his unique achievement for a 21st century audience. A longstanding committee member of the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK), and received unprecedented access to the family archive. Kentbegan reading Wodehouse at the age of 12, and is now much older than that. He has published works on Montaigne, Voltaire and Shakespeare, and is currently writing Volumes 2 and 3 of his Wodehouse trilogy.