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

Barmy in Wonderland

Angel Cake (U.S.)

A novel

Sacked from his position as hotel desk clerk, Cyril Fotheringay-Phipps, known as Barmy to his friends, is persuaded to put half his fortune into the troubled stage production Sacrifice. But not even Hollywood heart-throb Mervyn Potter in a leading role can save the show, despite his going on the wagon. Only the presence of Miss Dinty Moore keeps Barmy involved when matters go from bad to worse.

Publishing Information

UK:1952 Herbert Jenkins
1997 Vintage (used here)
US:1952 Doubleday as Angel Cake

First published in serial form as Phipps to the Rescue from 24 June to 22 July in Collier's Weekly magazine (US).

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Based on the play The Butter and Eggs Man by Kaufman, written in 1925 (according to PG in a letter to Guy Bolton in 1951), this is an excursion onto the Broadway stage, with ex-Drone Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps as our unreliable guide. If this book is any indication, Wodehouse suffered greatly at the hands of producers and leading ladies.

Barmy, Mervyn, Hermione, Bulstrode and the dog first met at a bazaar in Wimbledon, as told in the short story Joy Bells for Barmy - all of which has been forgotten for this book - although chapters 5 and 6 owe a lot to that story, PG doing his famous plot recycling. This should not be a problem for most readers as Joy Bells has only been published in a magazine (1947), and the limited edition Plum Stones, so is rarely seen.