Mr. P. G. Wodehouse, the novelist, recently told a London gossip writer that learning to play golf was occupying more of his time than inventing Jeeves stories.

“What is more, I am actually being taught by a man called ‘Jeeves,’ ” he said. “When I went to the golf school in Holland Park, London, and was told that Jeeves would be the best man to instruct a beginner like myself I thought they were trying to be funny.

“But no! Jeeves was just one of the ordinary instructors, and apparently had never even heard of my books. Perhaps he will give me some ideas for fresh Jeeves stories. He is not unlike my idea of my character, in looks.”

“I really invented Jeeves because one day I wanted to make ‘Bertie’ do something far too brainy for him to do alone,” Mr. Wodehouse told me. “Jeeves has appeared in most of my stories since.”

DAUGHTER AS CRITIC.

Mr. Wodehouse does not think of all his plots himself. His wife has a great gift for evolving adventures for the famous characters, but his greatest critic is his pretty 18-year-old step-daughter, Leonora.

“Often she makes me rewrite whole chapters, she is so particular as to what appears in print,” the novelist said.

Like Sinclair Lewis, Mr. Wodehouse is unable to work in luxurious surroundings.

“I have become so used to working in American hotel bedrooms that I can’t write in a comfortable place,” he said, “so I’ve had a kitchen table put in my bedroom and do most of my work up there.”

 

---