Jeeves and Wooster are coming back in a new novel. Good news or bad news?
Writer Ben Schott is taking on the formidable task. He is nothing if not courageous.
Hutchinson Publishers, an imprint of Random House, has some news for PG Wodehouse fans in the form of the announcement of a new novel featuring the classic characters of Wooster and Jeeves, who were first dreamt up by the beloved author over 100 years ago.
Jeeves and the King of Club will see gentleman of leisure Bertie Wooster and his unflappable valet Reginald Jeeves become spies in the interwar period. The book will be written by Ben Schott, author of the Schott’s Miscellany series, a collection of bestselling trivia books.
Schott, who is making the switch to fiction with this book, said “it was an honour to follow in the patent leather footsteps of Wodehouse, who opened up an empire of comic writing on which the sun has never set.”
The last novel featuring Wooster and Jeeves to be written by Wodehouse was Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, published in 1974, just a few months before the celebrated author’s death. However, the upcoming novel won’t be the first resurrection of one of the most famous literary duos in English literature. In 2013, novelist Sebastian Faulks took a stab at carrying on Wodehouse’s legacy with the publication of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells. The book, which featured the unusual twist of Bertie Wooster having to impersonate a valet and Jeeves having to pretend to be a Lord, was met with mixed reviews.
With the announcement of this newest offering, being published with the approval of the Wodehouse estate, all eyes are on Schott. After all, it’s not easy following in the footsteps of possibly the best comic writer ever.