Above Average at Games: The Very Best of P.G. Wodehouse on Sport

A beautifully produced collection of Wodehouse's golf, cricket, rugby, baseball and boxing stories- some of the funniest stories from one the the world's funniest writers, this makes the perfect Christmas gift for fans of Wodehouse or all things sport. 'Wodehouse would have made an excellent sports writer' Sunday Times As Wodehouse's biographer Frances Donaldson observed, it was vitally important to the boy Plum that he was 'above average at games'. Luckily, he was known at school as 'a noted athlete, a fine footballer and cricketer and a boxer', and sport inspired much of his earliest writings, as well as some of his very finest and laugh-out-loud funniest. Wodehouse wrote with trademark wit on a rich range of games - and on cricket and golf, in particular - as well as anyone ever has, bringing a knowledge and a passion born of practice. English cricket inspired in Wodehouse what he himself long considered to be his favourite work; and yet America (which he first visited keenly and then came to call home) led him to the love of baseball, and golf - enthusiasms that drew him to new tales for new audiences, including the celebrated golf stories which John Updike described as 'the best fiction ever done about the sport.' This rollicking anthology, selected, edited and introduced by the novelist Richard T. Kelly, offers a vivid picture of Wodehouse at play - in the ring, at the crease, on the tee - which is guaranteed to please any sporting crowd. Beginning with early journalism, taking in extracts from novels and short stories in their entirety, it all adds up to a medal-winning collection.

About the Author :
P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is widely regarded as the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. Wodehouse wrote more than 70 novels and 200 short stories, creating numerous much-loved characters - the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster, Lord Emsworth and his beloved Empress of Blandings, Mr Mulliner, Ukridge, and Psmith. His humorous articles were published in more than 80 magazines, including Punch, over six decades. He was also a highly successful music lyricist, once with over five musicals running on Broadway simultaneously. P.G. Wodehouse was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for 'an outstanding and lasting contribution to the happiness of the world'.

Review :
Above Average at Games is the sort of book that should be tackled from the comfort of a deep leather armchair in front of the fire at the Drone Club […] If Wodehouse hadn’t found success with Jeeves and Wooster and Lord Emsworth and all that crowd, he would have made an excellent sports writer […] He writes with great affection about the sporting world. There are several authors whose work should be required reading for every youngster in the land . . . PG Wodehouse, widely regarded as the greatest comic author of the twentieth century, is [one] . . . Novelist Richard T. Kelly has selected, edited and introduced a rip-roaring anthology . . . we’re treated to extremely funny observations on cricket, golf, boxing, rugby and even baseball. [H]ilarious and incisive; Wodehouse brilliantly sends up his own ineptitude (he was an 18 handicap), while managing to write of the sport with keenness of insight. [E]ven if you aren’t [interested in the technical aspects], bits make you laugh out loud.