The inhabitants of the suburban paradise of Wood Hills are split into two camps, the Golfers and the Cultured, and relations between the two are strained. This presents something of a problem for golfer Cuthbert Banks when he falls in love with Adeline, niece of Mrs Smethurst, leader and founder of the cultured.
Cuthbert joins the Literary Society and finds he has a rival in rising novelist Raymond Parsloe Devine. Worse, he spends so much time at literary lectures that his game suffers. Then comes the visit of the great Russian novelist Vladimir Brusiloff ...
| The Oldest Member | a dedicated golfer |
| Cuthbert Banks | a golfer |
| Mrs Willoughby (Emily) Smethurst | a cultured woman |
| Adeline | her niece |
| Raymond Parsloe Devine | a novelist |
| Vladimir Brusiloff | a Russian novelist |
First published October 1921 in the Strand magazine as The Unexpected Clicking of Cuthbert.
Also published July 1922 in Elk's Magazine (US) as Cuthbert Unexpectedly Clicks.
'... a man who ... has seen Golf steadily and seen it whole.'
- Matthew Arnold, Sonnet to a Friend.
'Blanked infernal fat-headed silly ass of a game!'
- blanked is a euphemism for an unspecified swear word, from the publishers' habit of blanking out such words in print.
'Life is stern and life is earnest.'
- from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's, A Psalm of Life.
Summum bonum
- the chief good.
'But there is always a fly in the ointment ...'
- a minor irritation that spoils enjoyment, from Ecclesiastes: Chapter 10, Verse 1.
'... the year on which he lion, so to speak, lay down with the lamb ...'
- 'the lion lies down with the lamb' and variations are popular sayings based on Isaiah Chapter 11, Verse 16 and Chapter 65, Verse 25, but not direct quotes.
'It is all very well to excite pity and terror, as Aristotle recommends ...'
- a reference to his Poetics. Writing in the fifth century B.C., he felt that tragedy purged the emotions through pity and terror.
Moujik
- a Russian peasant.
Vardon on the Push-Shot
- Vardon clearly refers to Harry Vardon (1887-1937) who was a top English golfer, six times winner of the Open and once of the US Open. I cannot find any matching publication.
Queen's Hall
- near All Soul's Church and Broadcasting House in London, opened in 1893, destroyed in 1941 (in the Blitz).
Zareba
- a hedged or palisaded enclosure for the protection of a camp.
Raymond Parsloe Devine Preferred
- preferred refers to a type of company share whose entitlement to a dividend takes precedence over an ordinary share. If they are 'down in the cellar' than their value is very low.
Feet of clay
- a flaw or character defect in a person otherwise revered.
'... the feast of reason and flow of soul ...'
- Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace, Satire i, Book ii.
Lloyid George
- David Lloyd George (1863-1945), British politician who became Prime Minister.
Abe Mitchell
- (1887-1947) Abe was a successful British golfer whose figure now tops the Ryder Cup (he tutored Ryder).
Lenin
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870-1924), revolutionary and first leader of Soviet Russia.
Trotsky
- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), real name Lev Davidovich Bronstein, founding member of the Soviet Politburo and founder of the Red Army.
A lot of famous names get dropped in this tale - but I have my doubts about 'Sovietski' and 'Nastikoff'.