When Gertrude Butterwick breaks off her engagement to Monty Bodkin, shortly before a trip to America, Monty takes the same ship to pursue her. Despite the help and hindrance of Reggie Tennyson, the erratic behaviour of film star Miss Lotus Blossom leaves Monty struggling to win back Gertrude. Not even the offer of a job from Ivor Llewellyn, the motion picture magnate, can help.
While Monty is forced to play musical cabins, Ivor has his own problems; how to smuggle a pearl necklace through US Customs. And what about Mickey Mouse and the alligator?
| UK: | 1935 Herbert Jenkins |
| 1954 Penguin (used here) | |
| 1975 Barrie & Jenkins (with new preface) | |
| US: | 1936 Little, Brown and Co (used here) * |
| Canada: | 1935 McClelland & Stewart |
Also published as a serial from September¹ 1935 in Passing Show magazine (UK) and August 1935 to January 1936 in Redbook magazine (US).
1. I cannot confirm exact dates but one source suggests 21 September to 23 November which gives 10 instalments - reasonable for a weekly magazine sold for two pence and boasting four articles, four shorts and a serial. One advert also quotes a sub-title, Red-headed Enchantress, presumably a reference to Lotus Blossom.
NB: There is a sequel, Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin which includes a précis of the entire plot of this book - make sure you read them in order.
* The American version is a re-write for serialisation in the US Redbook magazine. It is shorter, some events occur in a different order and it has more evenly, artificially spaced chapter splits than the UK edition which therefore don't match. Chapters 2 and 3 take place at Southampton Docks rather than Waterloo station, presumably to avoid explaining the 'boat train' to US readers. Since the US version was designed for a magazine it seems logical that the version intended for a book is the one to read as a book. In other words, if you have a choice, get the UK version. That said, the US version won't disappoint and enthusiasts might find comparing the two an interesting exercise.
Wodehouse was a frequent traveller across the Atlantic by liner and had worked in Hollywood for a while. According to Frances Donaldson in Yours, Plum, also recounted in Author! Author!, the smuggling plot was inspired by a real incident involving PG's wife and jewellery although as a visitor, not a resident, she was not liable to pay duty so she was not smuggling.
One on-line bookseller had this listed as The Lick of the Bodkins; so close and yet so strange.