Böcker i Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE-serien

P G Wodehouse was, by common consent, the most brilliant writer of English comedy in the 20th century, equally celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. This anthology includes two novels, fourteen short stories and extracts from Wodehouse' autobiography.

Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968) features Mike Bond, the hitherto fortunate owner of Bond's Bank, who finds himself in a spot of trouble so serious that he wants someone to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it.

When George, Viscount Uffenham turns the entire family fortune into diamonds and squirrels them away, naturally he forgets where he has hidden the loot and finds himself compelled to let the family seat to stay afloat. So it is that Mrs Cork's health colony comes into being, providing the perfect setting for crime and young love to flower.

While staying with his Aunt Dahlia to help out in the election at Market Snodsbury, Bertie Wooster comes up against the familiar horrors of Florence Craye, his former fiancee, and Roderick Spode, head of the Black Shorts, in a plot tangle from which, as usual, only the ingenuity of Jeeves can save him.

Pongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good".

After winning the Fat Pig competition for two years in a row with Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's ascendancy at the Agricultural Show is threathened by Sir Gregory Parsloe's new sow, Queen of Matchingham.

They and their contemporaries populate a series of vignettes in which the plot-twists keep you on your toes while the jokes keep on coming.

When Psmith finds himself working in the City for the pompous Mr Bickersdyke, he makes it his mission to bring a little sweetness and light into the bank manager's life. The monocled wit with the suave manner and the chivalrous but devil-may-care attitude to life is determined not to let honest toil depress him.

Fortunately, her plans are thwarted by a complicated series of events which involves French aristocrats, American crooks, an English novelist and the appalling Senator Opal, whose daughter, Jane, has a mind of her own.

Lord Emsworth's prized pig, the Empress of Blandings, is at the centre of Wodehouse's hilarious tale of mistaken identity, the triumph of young love, and general mayhem among the twits at Blandings Castle.

In nine of Wodehouse's ripest stories from the 1920s, the characters are united by their worship of golf.

The first of the Blandings Castle novels, introducing Lord Emsworth, his family, his secretary - the Efficient Baxter - and the mandatory Wodehouse cast of butlers, aunts, younger sons, detectives, lovers and imposters. Take the 4.15 from Paddington Station to Shropshire and arrive in heaven.

Trapped in the rural hell-hole of Steeple Bumpleigh with his bossy ex-fiancee, Florence Craye, her fire-breathing father, Lord Worplesdon, her frightful Boy-Scout brother, Edwin, and her beefy new betrothed, 'Stilton' Cheesewright, Bertie Wooster finds himself walking a diplomatic tightrope.

The result is the lightest of literary soufflees, another instalment in the long-running saga of the Threepwood family, including the head of the clan, Lord Emsworth, his virago sister, Lady Constance, and his debonair brother, the Honourable Galahad Threepwood, ex-boulevardier and solver of romantic problems.

Anyone who involves himself with Roberta Wickham is asking for trouble, so naturally Bertie Wooster finds himself in just that situation when he goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court.

The Honourable Galahad Threepwood has decided to write his memoirs and England's aristocrats are all diving for cover, not least Galahad's formidable sister Lady Constance Keeble who fears that her brother will ruin the family reputation with saucy stories of the 1890s.

Sir Buckstone Abbot owns what is possibly the ugliest stately home in England, and he is naturally eager to dispose of it to an American heiress, Princess Dwornitzchek. But the sale is complicated by the Princess's engagement to Adrian Peake, who is being pursued by Sir Buckstone's daughter, Jane, who is loved by Joe Vanringham.

Originally published as a serial in Chums under the pseudonym of Basil Windham, The Luck Stone is thoroughly Wodehouse with his trademark sticky situations, quirky characters, sly humour and wit, and of course, his renowned prose.

This charming story of the Jackson cricketing dynasty describes the adventures of Mike Jackson at boarding school as he makes his way up the sporting ladder to the first eleven.

Newly married to novelist Rosie M. Banks, Bingo bucks the current trend by being extremely happy, although he does tend to lose his shirt on various horses. This collection of wonderfully funny stories features a cast of outrageous characters.

The prime example is man-about-town Bertie Wooster, doing a good turn to Gussie Fink-Nottle by impersonating him while he enjoys fourteen days away from society after being caught taking an unscheduled dip in the fountains of Trafalgar Square.

Sir George was disappointed in his son, he was not a chip off the old block and lacked the aggressive drive required of a business tycoon. So why not marry him off to Felicia she has plenty of spark and could manage any man, all was going well until the arrival from New York of Bill West.

Not-so-fresh off the tramp steamer from America, Sam Shotter settles in the sleepy suburb of Valley Fields. His pastoral peace is short-lived, however, when Soapy Molloy, Dolly the Dip, and Chimp Twist arrive on the scene looking for two million dollars they seem to have mislaid in the vicinity.

In Quick Service a complicated chain of events is set into motion after Mrs. Chavender takes a bite of breakfast ham.

Gussie Fink-Nottle simply must marry Madeline Bassett or Bertrand Wooster will be obliged to proffer the ring in his stead. In a daring attempt at securing the engagement, Jeeves and Bertie visit a rural leper colony.

The trouble which begins with Gussie Fink-Nottle wandering the streets of London dressed as Mephistopheles reaches its awful climax in his drunken speech to the boys of Market Snodsbury Grammar School.

And so it is that, in the process of telling their story, published early in his career, Wodehouse constructs the critique of Europe versus America, privilege versus enterprise, decadence versus adventure, which was to underpin many of his later tales.

Contains stories that include "The Fat of the Land", "Scratch Man", "The Right Approach", "Jeeves Makes An Omelette", "The Word In Season", "Big Business", "Leave It To Algy", "Joy Bells For Walter", "A Tithe For Charity", and "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust".

From such an innocent beginning Wodehouse weaves a comic tale of suspense and romance involving one of his most distinctive early heroes, Ronald Eustace Psmith, monocled wit and devil-may-care boulevardier. Unusually for Wodehouse, this is not only a light comedy but also an adventure story in which crime and even gun-play drive the plot.

When Jimmy falls for a girl in London and vows to reform himself as a result, the quest for love leads him to his Aunt Nesta's house in New York, where his escapades involve impersonating himself and attempting to kidnap Nesta's odious son Ogden - with the boy demanding a cut of the ransom money.