Blandings: TV Tie-In by P.G. Wodehouse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blandings is a compilation of five short stories and one novella of and about Lord Emsworth, thus set in Blandings Castle. The collection is a result of the six-part adaptation of P G Wodehouse's Bladings series by Guy Andrews. This series was aired on BBC in 2013 as Season 1. Another seven-part adaptation was aired in 2014 as Season 2. I have not watched either, and so will limit my review to the book I have just read.

A myriad of characters appear in the stories - Lord Emsworth and his prized sow the Empress of Blandings being the perpetual recurring ones. Sisters, sons, brothers, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, butlers, constables, secretaries, imposters - the compendium has them all. Wodehouse takes you through the excitement in the seemingly mundane routine of Blandings Castle. A lot has been said about Wodehouse's skill with the written word and storytelling, not to mention the side splitting sense of humour - justifiably so - and this book is yet another testimony to those attributes.

Wodehouse's stories leave me with a sense that all is well a the end, and an unconscious smile - quite literally. I thoroughly enjoyed the collection. Some of them have featured earlier in Lord Emsworth and Others. I had read Crime Wave at Blandings before but gave it a re-read neverthless, for the humour and build up. Rupert Baxter appears in this story and his set right by Lord Emsworth. Pig-hoo-o-o-oey! is a feel good story, revolving around the rotund Empress and Lord Emsworth's devotion to her. Lord Emsworth and the Girl shows us the tender and stern sides of Lord Emsworth. I had not read this before and was a sweet discovery. This is the best feel good story amongst the lot for me. Company for Gertrude spins yarn in Wodehouse's favourite fashion - laying out an imbroglio and then rearranging everything perfectly. The Go-Getter features the incorrigible Hon. Freddie Threepwood who in his efforts to touch one of his aunts for a fortune ends up in unfortunate situations himself. For once he is not getting on to his father's nerves. It was good to have Freddie in the surroundings. The novella - Galahad at Blandings - is a stand out feature of the book. A quick read and classic Wodehouse. If you know what I mean.

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Hello English v 2.0

I did the first version of Hello English almost two years ago. I had a feeling - then - that I might get a chance to follow it up with sequels. A sequel at least, to be fair. So here we are!

There has been an extensive rush of matrimonial alliances all around the place and consequently a lot of people have been giving and receiving wedding wishes. This also includes the lot wishing and being wished on wedding anniversaries - which is the actual irritant here. But what is wrong with that, right? Here is what is wrong with it. Off late a lot of people wishing a lot of married couples on the latter's anniversaries, send out their wishes as "Happy Marriage Anniversary". I'd just like to point out that marriage and wedding are not synonyms. The former describes an institution where two people agree to spend the rest of their lives together, while the latter describes the act of getting married. Imagine someone saying, "This wedding is over. I will file for divorce" or "The marriage party was lavish!". "Happy marriage anniversary" falls in the same level of being ridiculous.

While we linger on terms describing different aspects of matrimony - and I have shared this earlier but makes for relevant ranting - if you read marry, Mary, Marie and merry just the same you must demand a refund from your school. They did not do a good job educating you. Given that educating you was their only job, a case of penalty is well in place. Also, if you read this somewhere you'd probably wonder that the typist had a conniptions fit while typing this out - Mary sat with her tea and English Marie in the merry coziness of her living room and watched, like millions, Charles marry Diana on her television.

As a child in school, I was fairly curious about the nuances of language and after a little probing I realised that whatever is known is known as, but whatever is called is never called as. Known as simply alluding to being known for some feat one achieved and being called the consequent nickname one earned by virtue of the feat accomplished. The process of being named may happen with or without as, as the case may be and the context of usage pertains to what 'being named' literally means. If I were to demonstrate the usage of the three terms in a single scene, here is how it would go - Rajni and Ramesh Tendulkar's son was named Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin grew up to be known as 'the God of cricket'. He was fondly called the Master Blaster. 

The sheer lack of curiosity in people is the cause of such faux pas. If only they bothered to get into the depth of things, instead of the deepness of things - who the hell even coined that term! - I would not be doing a version 2.0 of this. But hope springs eternal and I will come back with a version 3.0 too. In a matter of time. So long then!

(You can read Hello English v 1.0 here.)

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