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Blandings - the logo of www.blandings.org.uk, the Companion to the works of P G Wodehouse

The Luck Stone

A school novel

When Corporal Sam Burrows is shot outside young Jimmy Stewart's house he entrusts a small blue stone to the boy. Back at school, Jimmy and his friend Tommy have to face burglars, kidnapping, house masters and a car chase before the mystery of the luck stone is revealed.

Publishing Information

UK:1997 Galahad Books (limited edition) * - (used here)
US:2006 Odbody & Marley (paperback)

First published in Chums (magazine) in serial form from 23 September 1908 to 20 January 1909, under the pseudonym Basil Windham.

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Quite unlike any of the other school stories, this tale moves at a frantic pace for a different audience. For example, Jimmy's school plays Association Football or soccer not the rugby football of up-market public schools. The comic German schoolmaster (who's really a good chap) and the eccentric English of the eastern lad are matters of taste.

According to David Jasen in his biography P. G. Wodehouse: Portrait of a Master the name Basil Windham concealed a collaboration between PG and his friend Herbert Westbrook rather than a solo effort.

* Standard bound copies numbered 1-250 and 26 specially bound copies lettered A-Z (totalling 276 copies).