It's Wodehouse Day...

Or rather it should be. In these dark days, it would surely do the nation good to celebrate every year its presiding comic genius, born on this day in 1881. He was, after all, the greatest comic writer in English, one who created not one but two comic worlds that will surely endure - a rare thing in comedy, which tends to date very fast. Of course he wrote too many potboilers - he was nothing if not a professional, and he earned a huge amount of money by his pen - but there must be very few, if any, that don't have, among the stock characters and formulaic plots, the odd scene or turn of phrase in which the Wodehouse genius shines through. And then there are those two classic worlds - the world of Blandings and the world of Jeeves and Wooster, into either of which it is such an unfailing joy to slip at any time. Pick up a Wodehouse, enjoy the day, and give thanks for a writer who gave so much laughter to the world.