Thank You, Jeeves! ~ P G Wodehouse

Another delightful story where Bertie Wilberforce Wooster finds himself in a precarious situation and is in need of being bailed out by his valet Jeeves.

In this story Jeeves has actually left Bertie for employment elsewhere as he sick of Berties incessant playing of the banjolele.  This however does not prevent his expertise from being utilised – Jeeves is hired by the landlord of the cottage that Bertie has moved into after complaints about his playing from his city neighbours.    

Unfortunately if you add a drunken new Valet, a lovesick American heiress and some roaming minstrels into the mix - Berties bound to get into trouble!

This is laugh out loud stuff and I loved it.

The Big Over Easy ~ Jasper Fforde

Jack Sprat from the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department is investigating the murder of Humpty Dumpty who has fallen off a wall and shattered.


Apart from the fact that Humpty had a fatal case of Salmonella, there is more to his murder than meets the eye, as Jack realises when meeting a cast of characters who each have a motive for his murder.

Loosely based on Jack & The Beanstalk, this is a well written very funny mystery, with wonderful characters.

I don’t read much comedy, but Jasper Fforde is an author I will be sure to read more of in the future.

The Mating Season - P G Wodehouse

This was a delightfully funny and farcical story starring the famous duo Bertie Wooster and his man servant Jeeves.


A simple invite to a gathering at Deverill Hall turns into a race against time to save a number of relationships. The problematic situation is compounded by the fact that due to circumstances (and Jeeves’ connivance) Wooster is in disguise as the newt fancier Gussie Fink-Nottle whose relationship is first on the list, and Gussie unexpectedly arrives as Bertie with Jeeves in tow.

Jeeves, however, comes up with the solutions when all seems lost in his indomitable style.

I really liked the kindhearted, silly Bertie Wooster, and the jokes he came up with. My favourite, which fell flat at the Deverill gathering was:

There were three elderly men on a train traveling to Wembley. The men were hard of hearing, and as the trained pulled up at the station the first man said ‘this must be Wembley’, the second man said, ‘I thought it was Thursday’ and the third man said ‘so am I’!

Great innocent stuff. I can’t wait to read about more of Bertie’s antics.

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

A slapstick comedy about bumbling commanding officers, Yossarian’s desire to live and Milo’s attempts to profit from the war via M&M Enterprises.


The slaptstick is broken up by the recurring memory of the death of Snowden. All Yossarian can do to help him is say ‘There There” as the morphine has been taken by M&M Enterprises and all he is left with is Aspirin.

Mission limits are constantly being raised, morale is low as when they are close to going home the missions are raised again.

Yossarian relies on a fake pain in his liver to go to hospital and hopefully be sent home. “There was a much lower death rate inside the hospital than outside the hospital and a much healthier death rate”.

The language works today, not outmoded. It was reviewed as being shouted on to the page and being repetitive but I see this as adding to the slaptstick. It’s wacky but dark.

I wonder what real life experiences influenced this book? There were some good characterizations of bad management/command.

Highlights were: The forms letters – sent out complete, not edited to suit!

Inflation devices in the Mae Wests gone as they were used in Milo’s mess hall for soda streams!

Nately’s whore is reminiscent of the Pink Panther’s Cato.

There are Catch 22’s or paradoxes throughout the whole novel. The story told from various view points ie The injury to Major De Coverley’s eye, is later told by the old man in the brothel who had thrown the rose which injured the Colonel’s eye.

It is very clever. I loved it, it will be in my top 10 favourites.